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AN 



ESSAY OF INSTRUCTION, 



Off 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM; 

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
OF THE 

MARaUIS DE PUYSEGUR, 

'; 
TOGETHER 

WITH VARIOUS EXTRACTS UPON THE SUBJECT, 

AND NOTES, 
JOHN KING, M. D. 

PROFESSOR OP ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 




NEW- YORK: 



PUBLISHED BY J. C, KELLEY, 
No. 70 BOWERY. 






*$#>> 

^ 






Southern District of New -York, ss : 

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the ninth daj of 
September, Anno Domini, 1837, John King of the said District hath de- 
posited at this Office, the title of a Hook, the title of which it 5 in the words 
following, to wit 'An Essay of Instruction, on Animal Magnetism: Trans- 
lated from the French of the Marquis de Puysegur, together with various 
extracts upon the subject and Notes. I>y John King, M. D, Professor of 
Animal Magnetism", the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in conformi- 
ty with an act of Congress, entitled "an Act to amend the several Acta 
respecting copy rights. ' F. J. BKTTS, 

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York^ 



JJZ<?4 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 



Animal Magnetism is a subject which has 
given rise to many controversies in the literary 
and philosophical world ; and its followers have 
been more or less the subjects of ridicule, in- 
sult, and persecution, ever since the days of 
Mesmer. 

That thp ancients were acquainted with Mag- 
netism, is beyond a doubt ; yet it was so veiled 
in mystery, and kept among the priests, who, 
in general were the physicians, that with their 
gradual extinction, this subject also gradually 
became less known. Cures were performed 
by the priests in various ways, by merely touch- 
ing, and sometimes prescribing while asleep — 
no doubt in a state of somnambulism. And 
the prescriptions given in these dreams were 
recorded in the temples, from which Hermes, 
Galen, Hippocrates, and others, received great 
advantages. The sibyls, were but females in a 
true state of somnambulism, and we find that 
when they delivered oracles, verbally, that they 
experienced convulsions, &c, similar to many 
somnambulists of the present day. The Druids 
had also their sibyls, who were those females 
disposed to fall into fits of ecstacy. Many cases 
might here be given to prove the truth of what 
we have said, but the limits of this work, will 
not permit. 



A Gorman physician, named Mesmer, in 
about the year 1778, recognized in man the 
power of acting on the organs of his fellow crea- 
tures, by means, which depend on the will of 
the person who employs them. Since which, 
many talented persons have used it with suc- 
cess, among who may be mentioned Dr. D. 
Eslon, Professor de Jussieu, the Marquis de 
Puysegur, &c. the last mentioned of whom, had 
the good fortune to discover the state of [Mag- 
netic Somnambulism. Societies ot magnetisers, 
have been formed in France, Germany, West 
Indies, Russia; and in Prussia, and Bavaria 
the governments have judged proper, to reserve 
the practice of magnetism to physicians only. 

To satisfactorily explain magnetism, has thus 
far been impossible, though when it shall be 
done, I believe it will be found to be produced 
by galvanism. That it is not philosophically ex- 
plained, will be no hindrance to men of intelli- 
gence, in testing its reality, and no person will, 
or rather ought to ridicule any subject, until 
he has experimented upon it himself. One 
who laughs at it, because others do, or because 
he does not understand it himself, is only a vain 
blockhead. 

Myself was a skeptic, until I had proved it by 
a number of satisfactory experiments. In sev- 
eral of my first trials, I failed in producing any 
effects, but by perseverance, and a determina- 
tion to discover its existence, I was soon repaid 
for all my lost labor. 

That a somnambulist, can prescribe for his 



own disease, and also that of any who may be 
presented to him, is an undoubted fact ; but be- 
yond this no reliance can be placed on his as- 
sertion, although many have spoken correctly : 
however, it is no rule for magnetisers to believe 
in, and they should be careful lest they get de- 
ceived. 

The following is an article, translated from La 
Revue Francaise, and published in the N. Y. 
Courier and Enquirer, which is calculated to 
put all doubt upon the subject, at rest. 

A REVIEW OF 
" The Report and Discussions of the Royal 
Academy of Medicine" (of Paris) "upon 
Animal Magnetism" — 1 vol. 8co. 
Animal Magnetism ? — Does it exist? — and is 
it clearly proven, that by means of certain ges- 
tures fgest/sj there can be established between 
certain persons, relations of such a description 
that one of them, can at his pleasure cause the 
other to fall into a profound sleep, and render 
him insensible to all external impressions ? Is 
it possible, in fine, that in certain cases, a person 
thus put to sleep, may speak and act as if he 
were awake? That his senses, or at least, his 
means of communication uith exterior objects 
acquire such a degree of perfection and subtil- 
ity, that he can see with his eyes shut, or even 
with the aid of his stomach (epigastre) some- 
times by an internal faculty, the smallest de- 
tails of his internal organization or that of the 
individual with whom this relation has been 
produced ? 



6 

If these questions were put to us a priori, ab- 
stracted entirely from any connection with 
facts or experiments, we should not hesitate to 
resolve them with a prompt negative. We 
might even perhaps find them ridiculous and 
burlesque, and we are not sure but we might 
indulge in some pleasant raillery at the expense 
of those who were such charlatans or simple- 
tons as to put them — or credulous and silly 
enough to give them a moments' serious exam- 
ination. 

Thus have, up to the present period, a good- 
ly number of critics uniformly done, and we 
have a recollection of many articles, sparkling 
with the keenest and finest raillery, which were 
inspired by this same unlucky " Animal Mag- 
netism" and produced by the Editor of one of 
our most celebrated Journals. What a God- 
send, in fact, for the pages of a Journal was the 
description of the proceedings of the magnetis- 
ers and the magnetised, although in themselves 
— not very extraordinary ! What an inexhaust- 
ible source of pleasantry were the miraculous 
results proclaimed by the true believers ! With- 
out reckoning the gratification one naturally de- 
rives from giving ones-self the air of an esprit 
fort and an intellect, super or to the delusions 
which deceive and delight the vulgar. 

Unluckily this scepticism — amiable and in 
good taste as it is — will not assist us any longer. 
The authority of facts presses upon us with an 
irresistible weight; observations, experiments, 
— recant and undeniable — made in presence of 



men, much rather disposed by their habits and 
position, to doubt and deny, than to believe with 
too robust a faith, — demonstrate that beyond 
question, there resides in the very bosom of hu- 
manity, a force or a faculty, unknown, or illy 
observed during a long period, which by some 
sympathetic operation, quite indefinable but 
real, conducts certain persons by the action or 
at the toil I of certain others lo a state of sleep, 
a crisis, more or less efficacious, for the relief 
of maladies : These experiments prove more- 
over, that this state of sleep is susceptible in 
some instances, of conferring on the subject of 
it, a certain organic perfection of vision, (clair- 
voyance) altogether beyond the ordinary laws 
of nature; and leave the faculty of acting and 
speaking, as if in a waking state, or even with 
more clearness and precision than in that state 
itself. 

While these results were supported only by 
obscure experiments, often emanating from in- 
terested charlatanism, it was permitted to us to 
receive them with some distrust ; but, at this 
day, when one of our societies of Savans, has 
bestowed its attention upon Animal Magnetism ; 
at this day, when many of its most curious ef- 
fects have been verified by a commission which 
offers all the guaranties of science and pru- 
dence; the duty of every sensible man is to ex- 
amine without partiality as without prejudice, 
which is precisely what we are now about to 
undertake. 

The first striking and conclusive experiments 



8 

made upon Animal Magnetism, are to be cre- 
dited to the German — Mesmek: This physi- 
cian,— of a lively imagination and ol a disposi- 
tion, rather friendly to the marvellous, suspect- 
ed, while yet young, some of the effects of this 
secret force, the existence of which, it would 
seem, we are at this day, no longer allowed to 
question. Bat, Mesmer, in the place of com- 
mencing with observations of facts, — aspired 
at once to penetrate the cause, and he publish- 
ed, on this occasion, a discourse entitled: rt De 
Planetarum influxii" in which he attributes 
a certain influence over animated bodies, to 
certain currents, emanating from the celestial 
bodies, and particularly an influence over the 
nervous system by the medium of an universal 
current or fluid. Some years after, and by 
consequence of this pre-conceived theory, Mes- 
mer, persuaded that the action of this " univer- 
sal fluid" as he termed it, ought to resemble 
or to be connected with that of terrestial Mag- 
netism, or of the load-stone, boldly undertook 
to cure a convulsive disease by the application 
of magnetic rods. 

He was not long in discovering, however, 
that the phenomena produced by his operations, 
were to be attributed to some other cause than 
the magnet, and this cause he pronounced to be 
the influtnce of the will upon the nervous sys- 
tem. After numerous disappointments at Vi- 
enna, Mesmer came to Paris : warmly receiv- 
ed by some distinguished physicians — warmly 
censured by others, he very soon succeeded in 



9 

exciting a party in the highest society, then so 
excitable; in this society — where existed I 
know not what thirst and necessity for the mar- 
vellous and for powerful emotions, which pre- 
pared it admirably for the almost supernatural 
attractions of the doctor's new science. One 
operation, made on a large scale, procured for 
him, a sum by subscription, little short of 340, 
000 francs; a vogue, thus established, soon 
called the attention of the Faculty of Medi- 
cine; commissioners were named to examine 
this new Magnetism, in all its relations. Of the 
three commissioners, two pronounced sentence 
against Magnetism ; the third, the celebrated 
Jussieu, who alone had attentively pursued the 
experiments, made a separate report, in which 
he recognizes some facts, which demonstrates 
the existence of an external agent, independent 
of the imagination. 

In spite of this condemnation, however, by 
tw r o votes against one, Magnetism — as formerly 
quinquina and inoculation did also—continued 
to spread in reputation and gain credit. The 
political events, which soon succeeded, and 
which decimated or dispersed the classes of so- 
ciety in which M'esmcr had found encourage- 
ment and disciples, arrested for several years 
the career of the new discovery : but the Mag- 
netic Science still preserved seme adepts, in the 
first rank of whom figured Mesmer himself, 
(who died only 1815,) the virtuous Puysegur 
and the respectable and learned M. Deleuze. 

In the course of the ten or fifteen years which 



10 

preceded the death of 3fcsmer, the leisure of a 
long peace and the communications among the 
Savans of different countries, facilitated Mag- 
netic observations, and hastened the propagation 
of this science, or rather faculty, still very ill 
understood. A great number of young persons 
brought up with the positive ideas and the ec- 
lectick spirit and doctrines of that era, discarded 
from their operations in Magnetism, all that 
marvellous and half-cabalistic apparatus, with 
which, perhaps by design, Mesmer had sur- 
rounded it. The experiments were made in 
private, and in the hospitals; it was evident, at 
length, that the time had arrived " to appeal 
from the Faculty prejudging, to the Faculty 
better informed," — and to take off the moral in- 
terdict which had been placed upon Magnetism, 
by the authority of the two members of the 
commission of 1786. A young Physician, M. 
Foissac, had the merit of taking the initiative in 
this measure : in a letter addressed on the 11th 
October, 1825, to the Royal Academy of Me- 
dicine, he requested that it would name com- 
missioners to examine anew this question ot 
Animal Magnetism. In spite of a strong oppo- 
sition, a commission was named for the purpose 
of examining the question whether it comported 
with the dignity of the Academy to direct its 
inquiries to Animal Magnetism. Some months 
afterwards, the report of this commission was 
presented by Doctor Husson, who, a quarter 
of a century before, had contributed so much 
by his enlightened and persevering efforts, to 



11 

popularize the practice of vaccination^-a sub* 
ject also in the first instance of the most obsti- 
nate prejudices. 

This report, in which the history of Animal 
Magnetism is traced with equal fidelity and 
talent, announced two facts of high importance, 
and well capable of inducing the Royal Acade- 
my of Medicine, to relax somewhat of the lofty 
disdain with which so many people receive 
matters which they do not understand. Those 
facts are: 1st, the *" establishment at Berlin, 
by the authority of the Government, and under 
the patronage of the celebrated Hufeland, of 
an extensive clinical practice, in which the 
patients were treated successfully, with Magne- 
tism." 2ndly, the admission of Magnetism 
among the number of subjects proposed at 
Stockholm to the candidates for the degree 
of Doctor of Medicine. The report concluded 
with the nomination of a special Commission 
to devote itself to the study and examination of 
Animal Magnetism. 

We shall not enter into the details of the 
animated, and even stormy discussion, to which 
this report gave rise in the Royal Academy of 
Medicine. Some men of the most indisputable 
science, of the best disposition — prepossessed 
to excess, in favor of the respect due to existing 
Medical Doctrines, proved furious adversaries 
of the proposed innovation : Others, whose 
names are not less justly celebrated, happily 
comprehended that before condemning, it was 
necessary to examine, and if among the oppo- 



12 

nents, we find the names of M. Desgeueites; 
Double, and Laennec, the contrary opinion 
may with just pride, point to those of Messrs. 
Virey, Orjila, Marc and Magendie, among 
its partisans. The result of this discussion, 
which occupied three sittings, was the appoint- 
ment of a special commission, composed of 
Messrs. Leroux, B mrdois, Double, Magendie, 
Guessent, Uusson, Thillage, Marc, Itard, 
Fouquicr, and Guenau de Mussy. 

For nearly six ye irs, this commission de- 
voted itself assiduously to the observation of 
the magnetic phenomena which have been 
submitted to it by Doctor Foissac, and different 
other persons. 

The report upon these experiments, has final- 
ly been presented by Mr. Husson, at the sittings 
of the 21st and 28th of June: it was signed 
only by 9 of the members of the Commission, 
Messrs. Double and Magendie not having 
assisted at the experiments. Our space will 
not permit us to insert here the text of even 
their conclusions. The result of them in 
substance is, that " Magnetism is transmitted 
by certain movements, called passes, — some- 
times by the mere wile of the magnetiser, by 
fixing his eyes on the party — and even without 
the consciousness or suspicion of those who are 
magnetised : that Magnetism produces evi- 
dently slight convulsive movements, resembling 
electric shocks, a lethargy more or less profound 
— sighing — somnolency — and in a small num- 
ber of cases, what the magnetisers call som- 



13 

nambulism — a state which gives rise to the 
development of some new faculties, known by 
the name of clairvoyance, intuition, prevision 
interieure — or which produces great changes 
in the physiological condition, as insensibility, 
or a great and sudden increase of strength : 
— that somnambulists are often insensible to 
the most violent external noises, and the most 
energetic odours ; so that they can without be- 
ing incommoded, respire muriatic acid, or am- 
monia : that for the most part, the insensibili- 
ty of somnambulists is complete, and that they 
have been seen to undergo the most painful 
surgical operations icithout either the face, the 
pulse, or the respiration denoting the slightest 
motion : that somnambulists, have, with their 
eyes closed, distinguished objects placed before 
them, such as playing cards, and written char- 
acters ; that some others have foreseen and an- 
nounced with the most remarkable exactitude, 
and many months in advance, the day, the hour, 
the minute of certain crises of their disorder : 
that a somnambulist has been able to indicate 
the symptoms of the disorders of persons with 
whom they have been placed in magnetic con- 
tact or relation." These conclusions are ter- 
minated by these two extremely remarkable 
paragraphs : 

" Considered as an agent of physiological 
phenomena, or as a therapeutic resource, mag- 
netism ought to receive a place in the store ot 
medical knowledge, and consequently, physi- 
cians ought alone to superintend the employ 
z 



14 

ment of it, as a medical agent, as is the prac- 
tice in the north of Europe." 

" The commission has not succeeded in veri- 
fying, because it had not the opportunity to do 
so ; the existence of some other faculties which 
the magnetisers had announced to have estab- 
lished in somnambulists ; but it has collected 
and communicates facts, as it believes, of suffi- 
cient importance to induce the academy to en- 
courage researches into magnetism, as an ex- 
tremely curious branch both of pschychology 
and of Natural History." 

This report, which rests on the most rigor- 
ous experiments, was not of a nature to be de- 
feated ; the academy limited itself to having it 
autographed ; and it has remained deposited 
in its archives. It is thence that Doctor Fois- 
sac has drawn it for the purpose of publishing. 
We do not hesitate to declare, that by this pub- 
lication, he has rendered a veritable service to 
those who desire to decide only from a know- 
ledge of causes, in adopting or rejecting a par- 
ticular belief: a series of experiments made in 
the presence of such enlightened observers, and 
for the most part, of those in avowed disbelief 
of the phenomena which they were to exam- 
ine, is surely doing enough to satisfy the most 
incredulous minds. 

From among the numerous facts established 
by this report, we are now about to cite some 
which will give an idea of what is most aston- 
ishing and incomprehensible in the phenome- 
na, hitherto so badly understood of Anmial 



15 

Magnetism ; but, before all, we believe we shall 
do what will be acceptable to our readers, if we 
place before them in the very words employed 
by the Commission, the process employed in 
producing magnetic sleep. 

" The person who is to be magnetised, is 
seated upon a convenient sofa, or on a chair ; 
the magnetiser, seated a little higher, in front 
and at a foot's distance — appears to recollect 
himself for some moments, during which he 
takes the fingers of the individual magnetised, 
and remains in that position until he perceives 
that precisely the same degree of warmth is es- 
tablished between the fingers of the individual 
and his own. He then withdraws his hands, 
turning them outwardly, and places them upon 
the shoulders about one minute, then carries 
them gently, with a sort of slight friction, down 
the arms to the extremity of the fingers : these 
movements which the magnetisers call passes, 
are gone through with for five or six times ; af- 
ter which the operator places his hand above 
the head, holds them there an instant, then low- 
ers them, passing them before the countenance, 
at the distance of one or two inches, to the re- 
gion of the epigastrium, (stomach,) where he 
pauses again, sometimes resting his fingers on 
that region — sometimes not ; and then descends 
gently, the length of the body to the feet. — 
These passes are repeated during the greater 
part of the sitting, and when he is on the point 
of terminating it, he prolongs them to the ex- 
tremity of the feet and hands, shaking his 



16 

fingers at each time ; finally, he makes transient 
passes before the countenance and the feet, at 
the distance of 3 or 4 inches, presenting the 
two hands close to each other, and snatching 
them quickly away again." 

Assuredly, if it were necessary to decide by 
appearances, nothing would have more of a ri- 
diculous jugglery, than these gestures,— so sin- 
gular that we might well believe they were in- 
vented rather for the purpose of imposing on 
the imagination of women and children, than to 
produce results worthy of the attention of seri- 
ous men. Let us, however, look at the effects. 
From among a vast number of instances, we 
select the most prominent. 

" Mons. Petit, residing at Athis, was put 
into a state of magnetic sleep ; the members of 
the commission declare that his eyes were com- 
pletely closed ; that the eye lashes were even 
closed. In this condition, the somnambulist 
read with facility, different printed papers and 
manuscripts which were presented to him ; he 
played at cards with the greatest dexterity and 
without even committing a mistake ; when his 
eyes were bandaged with the greatest care, he 
showed himself conscious of the action of a 
magnetic current directed successively to dif- 
ferent parts of his body. 

" Paul Villagram, laboring under paralysis 
and attended at the Hospital of Charity, by Dr. 
Fouquier, one of the members of the Commis- 
sion, was put to sleep in the presence of the 
Commission ; he predicted the day and hour at 



17 

which his paralysis should cease. The Com- 
mission was exact at the place of rendezvous. 
Paul betook himself upon his crutches to the 
Hall of meeting, and was magnetised. When 
he awoke he demanded his crutches : " But 
you have no need of them," some one answer- 
ed him — * you have informed us you can dis- 
pense with them : rise up and walk !" On the 
instant the sick man stood up and returned, 
without his crutches, to his companions in the 
common hall, who were of course, overwhelm- 
ed with amazement ! ! ! 

But independently of these facts already so 
notorious, and which it seems to us impossible 
to explain if we do not admit the existence of 
magnetism, there is one still more important 
and direct, if we may so express it, in which 
all imposition and all trick are manifestly im- 
possible. The fact is attested by M. Jules Clo- 
quet, one of our most able and skilful physi- 
cians. 

" A lady was attacked by an ulcerated can- 
cer ; an operation, always one of the most deli- 
cate and dangerous in surgery, had become in- 
dispensable; the patient could not hear it spo- 
ken of without manifesting the most lively a- 
larms, and the most insurmountable repug- 
nance; a magnetic doctor was employed to 
throw her into a state of somnambulism, when 
she immediately recognized the necessity of the 
operation, and even solicited it with eagerness; 
upon the day fixed for the operation, M. C/o- 

quet found the patient dressed and seated upon 

2# 



18 

an easy chair, in the state of a person who had 
gently fallen into a natural sleep; she spoke 
with great calmness of the operation which 
she was about to undergo, and had prepared 
every thing that was necessary. M. Cloquet 
approached with his two assistants — during ten 
or twelve minutes, he was employed in making 
incisions, dissecting the tissues, and finally ex- 
tirpating the tumour; during all this time, the 
patient continued to converse tranquilly with 
the operator, without giving the slightest symp- 
tom of sensibility to pain : not a movement was 
manifested in the limbs or the features, not a 
change in the respiration, or the voice, or the 
pulse ! The patient remaining for forty-eight 
hours longer, in this profound magnetic sleep ; 
she only awaked after the first dressings had 
been taken off. They then informed her she 
had been operated upon, and the consequence 
was an agitation so lively, that the magnetiser 
was obliged to put her to sleep again immedi- 
ately ! ! ! 

Once more then, none of these facts can be 
denied; perhaps there may be found persons 
who will undertake to explain them, as our first 
military surgeon has, and who has not seen any 
better mode than that of calling his patient, the 
* Commere" of the magnetiser. But for all 
those who will not believe, that the desire of 
giving credit to an imposture, in the success of 
which, they who furnish the evidence are not 
at all interested, can go so far as to render pain 
unfelt, and flesh insensible, it will remain proved 



19 

to a demonstration that in certain cases at least, 
magnetic sleep operates a complete annihilation 
of sensibility — and then what a benefit — were 
it the only one that could result from Magne- 
tism — what consolation for humanity — what 
security for science in thus being able to ope- 
rate upon living subjects with as much calmness 
and sang f void as if dissecting a dead one ! 

The publication of the work of M. Foissac, 
it seems to us, should produce this result, to wit 
— that all sensible men will, at length compre- 
hend, that at this day, Jlnimal Magnetism is 
placed in the class of incontestible facts ; that 
the reign of doubt ought to cease and that of 
observation to commence. In awaiting the 
period, if it can arrive, when facts, systemati- 
cally arranged, shall be able to conduct us to 
the discovery of the law from which they ema- 
nate, — if any by way of controverting these 
facts, shall object that they cannot comprehend 
them — let them recollect that human reason for 
ages refused to be convinced of the motion of 
the earth — of the circulation of the blood — and 
of the utility of vaccination: — let them tell us, 
in fine, these men who rely so confidently on a 
test liable to so many errors, — let them declare 
if they do now comprehend the mystery of the 
germination of a single grain of wheat — or the 
production of the least insect that crawls upon 
the earth. 



20 



J. KING S THEORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 

1. The brain is a galvanic battery, constant- 
ly supplied with the galvanic fluid, from the 
surrounding atmosphere ; and the nerves are 
the conductors to and from this battery. 

2. No motion can be produced in man, ex- 
cept by the action of this battery, either volun- 
tary, or involuntary, on the part of the indivi- 
dual ; the action of striking, walking, &c, is a 
shock, or succession of shocks from this batte- 
ry, voluntary ; the winking of the eye lids, 
the collapsion and expansion of the lungs, &c, 
are also shocks from the same, involuntary. 

3. A person possessing a great portion of 
this fluid, and a strong battery, can force a cer- 
tain quantity of it into a person possessing it in 
a less degree, and with a weak battery. 

4. A person in health, enjoys the quantity of 
this fluid, together with its action, in a state of 
harmony and regularity, necessary to preserve 
health. 

5. A person diseased, does not enjoy the 
quantity of this fluid, nor its action in that re- 
gular and harmonious state, requisite for the 
preservation of health. 

6. An individual in good health, by employ- 
ing his will firmly and steadily on a person dis- 
eased, (willing, and being determined that such 
person shall be relieved from the disease by a 
magnetic sleep, or series of them,) calls into 
action his galvanic battery ; its whole force is 
directed to the sick person, and he becomes 



21 

charged with the fluid; this fluid produces 
sleep, and in accordance with the laws of po- 
larity in galvanism, and motion, (positive and 
negative attracting,) he becomes obedient to 
the will of his magnetiser. 

7. While magnetising, the magnetiser loses 
a portion of his fluid, which is forced upon the 
magnetised ; but being in health, he receives a 
constant re-supply from the atmosphere. 

8. It is necessary for the magnetiser to be- 
lieve, and have the faith, that the person mag- 
netised will sleep, and be cured, otherwise no 
good effect can be produced ; as a single doubt, 
destroys in a greater, or less degree, the force 
and regularity of action of the galvanic battery ; 
in the same manner, as if the copper plates in a 
battery were continually removed and replaced, 
or, the galvanic action continually interrupted ; 
thus producing no positive, or permanent effect. 

9. The reason why a person in the magnetic 
state, can speak so truly, is as follows ; the more 
perfect a man's brain is formed, the nearer to 
perfection is that man. Hence, a person whose 
phrenological organs are correct, having suffi- 
cient of each, in neither excessive, nor faulty 
proportions, is more talented naturally, than 
persons not so well formed. Then, as a person 
in the magnetic state, is nearer to perfection, 
than when awake; (the sensation in this sleep, 
being one, of which the others in a natural state, 
are mere modifications ; if in the natural state, 
his brain is well developed, the nearer to per- 
fection will he arrive in the magnetic sleep. 



22 

This accounts why some somnambulists can 
predict more truly on particular subjects, than 
others; owing to their particular phrenological 
developments, which are in a more perfect 
condition during somnambulism. 

Summary of Objections to Animal Magnetism. 

In an editorial article bearing the elegant and 
grammatical title of " An old Humbug neic- 
vamped," the Journal of Commerce, on Satur- 
day last, speaks very superciliously of the great 
excitement which has been created in several of 
the Eastern States, by the phenomena of Animal 
Magnetism. The testimony to the truth of this 
recovered science, which has been so frankly 
borne by the respected editor of the Nantucket 
Inquirer, seems to have caused much commotion 
in the sensitive viscera of the pious Journal, 
and it applies its hand to the tender part, as 
though it feared a similar attack of rationality. 
Indeed, it expresses its apprehension that the 
intellectual malady will spread all over the 
Union, like the Cholera ; and as nervous people 
are peculiarly susceptible subjects of Animal 
Magnetism, we should not be at all surprised 
to hear that the editor of the Journal had be- 
come a decided case. He naturally wishes to 
avert the visitation, which he seems conscious, 
would be peculiarly severe ; and for this pur- 
pose, fills eight columns of his first page with 
the most approved remedy he could find in the 
books. He says, he trusts that the public will 
not be deterred by the bulk of the dose from 
swallowing the whole, as it is admirably 



23 

calculated to do good, and " they who read it 
carefully will be likely to lose all power ever to 
exercise such faith as will admit them to the 
mysteries of the science." 

This paralyzing antidote to faith, is an arti- 
cle which appeared in 1833, in the London 
Foreign Quarterly Review, and is well known 
to the students of Animal Magnetism, as a 
professed summary of all the objections to that 
revived branch of physiology, that men of 
science and prejudice have urged. The Journal 
admits, that •' it gives the length and breadth of 
the philosophy and history of Animal Magne- 
tism ;" and it may therefore be fairly deemed 
one of the most formidable engines that the 
assailants of that science have constructed. It 
is nothing less than a review of a report made 
by a Committee of the French Royal Acade- 
my of Medicine, who were employed from the 
year 1826 to 1831, in testing the phenomena 
and pretensions of the science. To the evi- 
dence and opinions presented in this report, the 
review has added whatever facts, and falsehoods, 
perversions and prejudices, colourings and con- 
clusions, he could collect from his own resources, 
which furnish some of these supplies not scanti- 
ly. The article is by far too long for our co- 
lumns, or we would transfer it to them with 
pleasure ; but we pledge ourselves to give as 
impartial and comprehensive an abstract as our 
limits will admit, and to reply to it with perfect 
fairness and candour. We invite a perusal of 
it, as it appears in the Journal, that all who 



24 

feel an interest in the controversy may see 
whether we redeem our pledge. 

After a trifling introduction, the reviewer 
says, u our article shall divide itself into three 
heads, I. A historical sketch of Animal Mag- 
netism. II. An examination of its proofs. III. 
An inquiry into its practical utility." This 
therefore, is the spontaneous Cerberus which 
we undertake to decapitate. And its first head 
is by no means invulnerable. It says "1. Ani- 
mal Magnetism, so called, because it is npt 
Magnetism, and has never been known to affect 
any animal but man." We have only to re- 
mark, that the satire of this burlesque sequitur 
is obtained at the expense of truth. Did the 
learned reviewer or his indorser, the editor of 
the Journal never Magnetise a Cat? If not, 
let them make the simple experiment of smooth- 
ing down the fur of a full grown cat, until they 
see it rise in rough tufts after the vertebra, like 
the surcharged feather of an electrometer. 
This is Animal Magnetism; and if a cat thus 
filled with an excess of the magnetic fluid (spirit) 
from the operation, be taken into a perfectly* 
dark apartment, its fur, on his repeating the 
friction of the hand, will emit galvanic sparks, 
both visibly and audibly. The distressed ani- 
mal will become convulsed in all its muscles, 
and if not speedily released, will feel little deli- 
cacy in giving either of those gentlemen a 
dental demonstration of the folly of their tran- 
scendental scepticism. 



25 

But every animal exhibits proofs of magnetic 
influence. Van Amburg tames and controls 
his lions, leopards, and tigers by it, although 
he may be unconscious of the fact. Almost 
his first act of discipline, upon a tiger, fierce 
from the forest, is to stroke its skin, manipulate 
its ears, ribs, vertebra, and other parts which 
he has found by experience to be favorable to 
nervous communication, and which are known 
to physiologists to be anatomically so. The ani- 
mal thus becomes so completely subdued to his 
will, that he can handle it as familiarly and confi- 
dently as we can the domesticated creatures 
that repose upon our carpets. He may even 
chastise and irritate his ferocious pupils, and 
they have no power to injure him, whilst he re- 
tains confidence in his own to subdue them ; 
whereas, a person who had not acquired that 
control, or who might irresolutely assume it, 
would be torn in pieces, The power of snakes 
and of some other creatures, to secure their 
prey by animal fascination, which is but ano- 
ther term for Magnetism, is as well established 
as any fact in natural history ; and the power 
of the human eye upon inferior animals, as also 
upon inferior men, is daily exemplified. And 
yet the superficial reviewer, so congenially ad- 
mired by the Journal of Commerce, com- 
mences his formal refutation of Animal Magne- 
tism, by asserting that it has never been known 
to affect any but the human species ! In the 
experiment which we have suggested he would 
find a categorical answer. 
3 



26 

This philosopher then goes on to say — -"The 
disciples of any new and doubtful hypothesis 
are generally anxious to find as many traces as 
possible of it in universal belief/' Certainly 
they are, and very naturally too; for such 
traces if not confirmations, are welcomed as 
agreeable associations, even at the sacrifice of 
the pride which accompanies original discovery; 
and u accordingly," says the reviewer — 

" The magnetistshave not been idle, but col- 
lecting all those incidents, formerly accounted 
for by sympathy, imagination, imitation, or 
credulity, they triumphantly bring them forward 
as undoubted evidences of the " influence" which 
they advocate, and commence their work with.— 
u In all times ;md in all ages has popular belief 
admitted the existence of an universal principle, 
pervading all matter, and binding together all 
bodies. Plato speaks of the anima mundi, &c." 

Very well ; is it violently unphilosophical to 
contend that sympathy, imagination, imitation 
and credulity, are but effects of other causes ? 
Are they original and unproduced principles, 
or are they effects, producing other effects ? Is 
it not the peculiar province of sound philosophy 
to trace the occult causes of manifest effects ? 
and is not this the distinguishing feature be- 
tween philosophy and vulgar knowledge — be- 
tween science and superficiality ? Imagina- 
tion, for instance, is a certain active and prolific 
exercise of the brain ; Phrenology assumes to 
have discovered the organs of the brain upon 
which it depends, because it is observed that 



27 

those men who have the fullest development of 
the organs which are termed those of ideality, 
are most remarkable for power of imagination. 
But whether this discovery be genuine or not, 
it is admitted in every system of physiology, 
that all the operations of the brain, be what 
they may, depend upon its nerves ; and that the 
nerves depend upon something else, for their 
functions and actions. — This something, ha* 
been termed a " nervous fluid," " animal spirit," 
the " vital principle," and by others, " Animal 
Magnetism," And what if it be said that this 
is but one of the many phenomena of '* an uni- 
versal principle pervading all matter," which 
Plato termed the anima rmindi ? — There is 
nothing self contradictory or absurd in this an- 
cient theory, and, like all others, it is true or 
false, according to the facts by which it can be 
sustained or overthrown. If we assert that 
magnetism is the cause of universal motion ; 
and that the centripetal and centrifugal forces 
of Newton, are but the negative and positive, 
or attracting and repelling forces of magnetism, 
we assert nothing that is obviously false, and 
we appeal to the phenomena of astronomy for 
evidence. If we contend that these forces pro- 
duce and operate throughout nature, causing 
all the forms and functions of vegetables and 
animals; — that they cause the upper part of a 
leaf to repel, and the under part to attract ; — - 
that they cause light to be in the positive state 
of magnetism and darkness to be in the nega- 
tive; — that they cause the two organs of ideality 



28 

in the human brain to be the two poles of a 
galvanic battery, one attracting and the other 
repelling ideas, and creating partialities and 
antipathies, according to certain natural affini- 
ties which it is the province of philosophy 
to analyse and classify ; that the two hands of 
the animal magnetiser are the conducting wires 
of a battery, conveying an additional quantity 
of magnetism into the nervous system of the 
patient, overpowering him with sleep, and en- 
dowing his brain with unwonted and extraor- 
dinary powers of action which it cculd not oth- 
erwise possess. If we assert these and a thou- 
sand other things which are unknown and un- 
taught in the philosophy of the schools, we still 
appeal to a scrutiny of facts as the grand test 
by which every theory should stand or fall. It 
is no argument against this theory to say that 
it is cccult and iittle known; for the calculation 
of comets and eclipses is occult philosophy to the 
multitude, even to this day: and before almanacs 
and school books were disseminated, such predic- 
tions were deemed supernatural. The time may 
come, and we believe is not remote, when ani- 
mal magnetism will occupy an elevated and re- 
spected station among the established sciences. 
But we have been carried away (by magne- 
tism, we suppose) from cur reviewers of bjau- 
tiful history. He modestly declines adventur- 
ing into the dim porticoes and archives of an- 
cient learning, upon this subject, and is shy 
even of poor Plato. He might have been beset 
by sundry ghostly convictions,, had his learning 
enabled him, and his candour induced him to 



29 

commence his researches in the temples of Iris, 
Osiris, and Sera pis. He would have found that 
magnetic somnambulism was the source not 
only of oracles, but of the art of medicine, in 
those ages. He would have discovered the 
meaning of those hands laid upon human figures, 
among the hieroglyphics. The inscriptions on 
the temple of Diana at Ephesus, might have led 
him to suspect that the son of Lucius was cur- 
ed oi his hopeless pleurisy, and the soldier Va- 
lerius of his blindness, by the seemingly mirac- 
ulous virtues of Animal Magnetism. It is 
possible he might have perceived that the wri- 
tings of Hyppocrates were gathered from simi- 
lar inscriptions, and that Hermes of Cappodoce 
had copied his recipes from the temple of Mem- 
phis. In the discourses of Aristides, in honor 
of Esculapius and Asclepiades, he might have 
found a detail of cures to which the writer tes- 
tifies from personal experience, and which in 
every respect coincide with those of modern 
magnetism. In Valerianus, he might have 
learned that the very index (ffT 5 ') now used in 
printing, once expressed the finger of the mag- 
netiser, and might have guessed that the scrip- 
ture phrases, "the finger of the Lord hath 
touched him," and " hath laid his hand upon 
him," which are so commonly used in reference 
to bodily afflictions, contains some meaning, not 
entirely mystical. In Monfaucons Antiquities, 
he might have beheld an Egyptian priest heal- 
ing the sick by animal magnetism, or the " lay- 
ing on of hands ;" and that magnificent collec- 
3 # 



30 

tion contains three other pictures representing 
that mode of cure in its different stages, as now 
practised. In the first to which we have allu- 
ded, the magnetiser has one hand on the breast, 
and the other hand on the head of his patient ; 
in the second, one on the head and the other on 
the feet ; in the third, his hands are on both 
sides; in the fourth, on the thighs. In the first 
the patient lies at full length ; m the second he 
has moved ; in the third, he sits up ; in the 
fourth he rises to walk. The comparatively 
modern Cicero (Cic de Divin. lib. 2, No. 13^,) 
might have led him to perceive that the som- 
nambulism of Alexander, and the healing of 
Ptolomeus, are not more remarkable, if received 
as literally true, than the incontestible and un- 
deniable effects of magnetism as now revived ; 
whilst an attentive perusal of Plutarch, and of 
other writers on the oracles, might have led 
him to suspect thai the stupendous temples 
which the most enlightened nations erected to 
their honor, were founded upon facts as well es- 
tablished as the miracles upon which we build 
the temples of our faith. 

Our reviewer's respect for antiquity does not 
allow him to enquire into the mysteries even of 
the Druids. He perhaps considers the divina- 
tions, predictions, and cures of their priestesses, 
as recorded by Tacitus, Vospicious, and others, 
as exploded fragments, of a once popular super- 
stition, or peradventure as results of supernatu- 
ral agency, instead of natural operations of a 
somnambulists brain, and in nowise more inex- 



31 

plicable than the familiar phenomena of the 
mariner's compass. No ; he opens his redoubt- 
able history with the seventeenth century, and 
scarcely there ; for beginning as he does with 
Kircher, whose cures were performed by the 
pulverized mineral magnet, he can scarcely 
be said to have approached the vestibule of his 
subject. He takes occasion to bestow a grin 
or two upon the rubishy recipes of Kenelm 
Digby, Paracelsus, and somebody who called 
himself Dr. Itobertus a Fluctibus, (Dr. Bobby 
Fludd!) and upon the #i weapon salve" of Par- 
son Foster ; and he does this, he says, because 
the wonders of these folks' remedies, prepared 
the public mind for the " marvellous cures per- 
formed by the stroaking of the hands of Mr. 
Valentine Greatrake's." The history of this 
old man's apparent but probably not permanent 
cures of scrofula and other diseases, is pretty 
generally known even at the present day ; and 
it is adduced by the unwary reviewer as an 
evidence that as the effects of Greatrake's lay- 
ing on of hands, were precisely similar to those 
of modern Animal magnetism, the latter have 
no higher pretensions than his. To this con- 
clusion we cheerfully assent ; for our opponent 
cannot and does not deny the reality of the one 
any more than the other ; and gives no reason, 
either philosophical or historical, why both may 
not have been performed by the same natural 
agency ! In our opinion, he has unwittingly 
brought evidence in behalf of a cause which he 
was aiming to subvert. That Greatrake's sin- 



32 

gular and notorious influence upon king's-evil, 
pals}', chronic headache, epilepsy, and other 
convulsive affections, was real and not fabulous; 
that epileptic patients fell down when he ap- 
proached them, like the demoniacs mentioned 
in the New Testament; and that he considered 
them demoniacs, and " hunted the foul spirit up 
and down women's throats," with exemplary 
perseverance, until they were dispossessed, is 
matter of history. He was cited, for these ex- 
ploits, before the Dean's Court at Lismore, and 
prohibited from " laying on his hands" any 
more, lest the miracles of scripture should be 
disparaged ! He, however, continued his ope- 
rations, and became as famous in England as 
in Ireland. 

Now it is saying nothing against these histo- 
rical events to say, as the reviewer does, that 
Greatrakes was an hypocondriacal Irishman, 
who gave himself up to gloomy meditations, vi- 
sions and dreams; it is nothing to say that he 
was a superstitious old fool, for believing that 
epileptic fits were foul fiends, whom he chased 
through the labyrinths of the alimentary canal, 
and finally dismissed, without the means of ob- 
taining another night's lodging. He was not a 
whit the worse animal magnetiser for all this, 
but probably a much more powerful one. His 
visions and credulity w r ere the effects of an unu- 
sual quantity of the magnetic fluid (spirit) in 
his own nervous system, and he naturally pos- 
sessed greater resources for communicating it 
to others, that any man of a less excited mind. 



33 

His system was distinguished by a highly mag- 
netic idiosyncracy, and hence the peculiar ef- 
fect of his manipulations. 

Having done with Valentine Greatrakes, the 
reviewer next alights upon the " Convulsiona- 
ries de St Medard" of the eighteenth century, 
a set of sympathetically magnetised enthusiasts 
whom our readers may remember as having 
" cut up no small shines" before the tomb of 
some favorite saint, in Paris. They were in 
reality, but little more extravagant than people 
similarly afFected at our country camp meetings 
and revivals; and we are not sure that the fa- 
mous religious magnetist, Jedediah JBurchard, 
did not magnetise his audience lately, in Chat- 
ham street Chapel, even more violently. The 
reviewer, however, heightens the actual occur- 
rences to a monstrous extent, by introducing 
several broad fabrications which were jocosely 
made at the time. Animal magnetism, in a 
certain stage of its influence, does render its 
subjects so perfectly insensible to pain that the 
most severe surgical operations have been per- 
formed upon patients without exciting the least 
consciousness. Indeed, surgeons have not un- 
frequently thrown their patients into a mag- 
netic sleep for this uselul purpose. But our 
honest reviewer says that one of these " convul- 
sionnaries" received sixty blows from a heavy 
iron bar, laid on with the full strength of a Her- 
culean fellow ; and although it afterwards re- 
quired but twenty five such blows to knock a 
hole through a stone wall, this delicate som- 



34 

nambulist was so delighted with sixty, that she 
exclaimed u Ah ! que cela est bon ! ah ! que cela 
me fait du bien ! Courage ! mon frere ; redou- 
blez encore des forces si vous plait!" The re- 
viewer also states that one of the magnetised 
ladies became a perfect Salamander, and recei- 
ved great refreshment from reposing on a red 
hot brazier! And it is with stories like these 
that he attempts to discredit the actual phenom- 
ena of animal magnetism ! But if these things 
did occur, he would require that science, and a 
great deal more, to account for them; and if 
they did not, why does he adduce them against 

Having thus substituted broad grins for phi- 
losophical investigation, the self-complacent re- 
viewer is quite satisfied to leave the contagious 
mania of the ,; Convulsionnaries de St. Medar," 
without any scientific explanation, and suppo- 
ses he has arrived at a profound depth of saga- 
city when he concludes that the phenomena re- 
sulted from an excited imagination. They did 
so ; but what subtle influence acted upon the 
nerves to produce that excitement ? 

Mesmer, the German physician, who first re- 
vived Animal Magnetism on the European con- 
tinent, is the next object of our reviewer's ridi- 
cule and misrepresentation. Mesmer appears 
to have studied the occult sciences, more parti- 
cularly the science of Astrology, to which the 
most learned and acute minds of the dark ages 
had been devoted, for the purpose of rescuing 
whatever gems of truth he might find among 



35 

the rude ore of absurd and mystical speculation 
in which they were imbedded. He rationally 
inferred that the human mind cannot be long 
and intensely directed to the physical sciences 
without discovering some truths of intrinsic and 
precious value. The Alchymists may not have 
discovered the art of transmuting other metals 
into gold, to any useful extent ; nor did the old 
man's sons find the treasure which he said was 
contained in their patrimonial field ; but they 
assidiously dug and delved it until it produced 
golden harvests of grain, and the researches of 
the Alchymists fallowed the rich field of mod- 
ern chymistry. From their works, Mesmer 
brought much sound science, encumbered with 
many great errors, and his dissertation on the 
" Influence of the Planets on the Human Bo- 
dy," is a grotesque admixture of both. He 
maintains that, as the sun and moon, by direct 
action on our globe, cause the flux and reflux of 
the sea, so do the other bodies of the solar sys- 
tem, acting in connexion with them, influence 
the nervous mechanism of animal bodies, "pro- 
ducing in them two different states which he 
termed intension and remission, and which seem- 
ed to account for the different periodical revo- 
lutions observable in several maladies in dif- 
ferent ages, sexes, &c. The property of the 
animal body which rendered it susceptible of 
this influence, he termed Animal Magnetism." 
This quotation is given in the wcrds of the hos- 
tile reviewer, and we see nothing unphilosophi- 
cal in the theory it describes, except that Mes- 



36 

mer goes directly to the planets for this influ- 
ence, instead of first seeking it in the magne- 
tism which notoriously surrounds the globe. — 
The planets, no doubt, modify the magnetism 
of our atmosphere, in various ways ; and there 
is no transcendentalism, but perfectly mathe- 
matical deduction in saying, that every body in 
the universe exerts some influence upon the 
whole creation. Mr. Babbage, in the Ninth 
Bridgewater Treatise, just published, has a very 
eloquent and luminous passage upon this sub- 
ject which we are sorry we cannot now extract 
entire. He says, " The principle of the equali- 
ty of action and re-action, when traced through 
all its consequences, opens views which appear 
to many persons most unexpected. Aerial pul- 
ses, (magnetic currents) unseen by the keenest 
eye, unheard by the acutest ear, altogether 
unperceived by the human senses, are yet de- 
monstrated to exist by human reason ; and in 
some few and limited instances, by calling to our 
aid the most refined and comprehensive instru- 
ment of human thought, their courses are tra- 
ced and their intensities measured. If man en- 
joyed a larger command over mathematical 
analysis, his knowledge of these motions would 
bo more extensive ; but a being possessed of the 
unbounded knowledge of that science, would 
trace even the minutest consequences of a pri- 
mary influence ; and supposing the interference 
of no new causes, the circumstances of the fu- 
ture history of the earth's atmosphere (and of 
the earth itself, and of its inhabitants) would be 



37 

distinctly seen, and might be absolutely predict- 
ed for any, even the remotest point of time." 
Again he says, " The solid substance of the 
globe itself, whether we regard the minutest 
movement of the soft clay which receives its 
impression from the foot of animals, or the con- 
cussion produced by mountains rent by earth- 
quakes, equally retains and communicates, 
through a.l its countless atoms, their appor- 
tioned shares of the motions so impressed." 
This may be too abstractly mathematical for 
general perception, and so are the problems of 
Differential Calculus and the Summation of 
Infinite series, but they are not the less true to 
those who understand them. 

Ordinary magnetic influences, however, are 
much more simple, more readily demonstrated 
by familiar facts, and the science of them is 
more immediately applicable to useful purposes, 
than those of them wl\ich demand elaborate 
calculations. In the Mariner's Compass, we 
behold a small strip of steel obeying an invisible 
influence whose concentrated force is many 
thousand miles distant. By the common electri- 
fying machine, we obtain from the atmosphere 
an electro-magnetic force, adequate to, kill an 
ox ; and this force more efficiently elicited, and 
properly modified, would propel the most ponde- 
rous fabrics of naval and civil architecture, 
and even rend asunder the solid mountains. 
From two or three pieces of copper and zinc, 
we obtain a similar force, communicating to 
iron the very negative and positive forces which 
4 



38 

distinguish the north and south hemispheres of 
the earth, and moving machinery. If we apply 
the magnetic needle to the perpendicular rail of 
any iron palisade, we shall find upper and under 
ends in opposite states of magnetism, corres- 
ponding to that of the hemisphere in which it 
stands, and caused by the currents of the all- 
pervading influence. If we apply the same 
needle, in a certain manner, to the tegumentary 
and mucus surfaces of the human body, we shall 
also find them in opposite states of magnetism, 
varying in health and disease by laws as regu- 
lar as those which keep the planets in their 
courses. If we dissect and display the nerves, 
veins and arteries of the human frame, and 
compare them with the fibres, tubes and branch- 
es of vegetable forms, we shall find them cre- 
ated by the same invisible power ; and if we 
divide a scrofulous tubercle in a certain stage 
ol advancement, and examine its circular divi- 
sions, we shall find them produced by the same 
forces which formed the rings of the planet 
Saturn, and, moreover, every tubercle will be 
found to have two poles, like the earth on which 
we live. In short, every thing attests the uni- 
versality of magnetism, mineral, animal and 
vegetable. The laws of magnetism were the 
parents of Geometry, and constituted the 
foundation of all ancient science, which was 
so profound as compared to ours of the present 
day, that a single phonetic character, in some 
of the ancient inscriptions, conveys more dis- 
tinct and compendious knowledge than a mo- 



39 

dern volume. The study of the laws of that 
universal principle, is destined again to elevate 
the human mind. 

Why Animal Magnetism should be selected 
as an especial object of ridicule and opprobri- 
um, we certainly cannot discover from any 
argument or illustration in the review before us. 
The writer's attempts upon the philosophy of 
Mesmer, crude and imperfect as it is, only 
exhibit his own ignorance of the causes of the 
most common phenomena. A well informed 
and candid writer, even if an opponent, would 
have seen something worthy of investigation in 
the " intensions and remissions" which Mesmer 
speaks of in the nervous system, for they are 
observed by every physician, although not de- 
scribed in the same terms. And did the learned 
reviewer never hear of medical electricity, nor 
of the class of diseases to which it is applied, 
in every medical college in the civilized world ? 
Mesmer's magnetised bars, and Animal Magne- 
tism, were predicated, and in reality acted 
upon precisely the same principles. The cures 
which the reviewer himself enumerates as hav- 
ing been effected by them, whether permanent 
or not, demonstrate the influence which he 
labors to disprove, and the utmost point that is 
attained either by this writer or by the French 
Committee who bestowed the keenest scrutiny 
upon the cases during a period of five years, 
was that the imagination was the most general 
medium of that influence. 

The failures of Mesmer, and other magneti- 



40 

sers, in many instances, to produce the predict- 
ed effects of their experiments, are pointed out 
by our reviewer with as high an air of triumph 
as he could have exhibited had they never suc- 
ceeded at all. The frank admissions of ail 
magnetisers that their operations are not atten- 
ded with invariable success ; that, in such expe- 
riments upon the nerves, much must depend 
upon the physical and mental disposition of the 
operator as well as of the patient; and, indeed, 
that success, at all times, depends upon the 
strong and unembarrassed volition of the ope- 
rator, as the exciting cause of that animo-mag- 
netic influence which he conveys, are all discar- 
ded and strided over with supreme contempt by 
this opponent, or rather, still more unfairly, em- 
ployed as weapons of assault. And we can 
tell the Journal of Commerce, which has en- 
dorsed them, that some of the reviewer's argu- 
ments against Animal Magnetism, tell with 
equal force and fairness against something which 
he probably holds more sacred — against Chris- 
tianity itself! He sneeringly adduces the im- 
portance of faith in the power of the magneti 
ser, to the efficacy of his influence upon his pa- 
tients, more particularly in curing their diseases. 
He unhappily forgot that faith was almost in- 
variably required by the Founder of Christiani- 
ty, not merely as a facility, but as an essential 
qualification, in many of the patients upon whom 
he wrought cures which we are taught to 
believe were miraculous and accomplished only 
by divine power. "If thou hast faith thou canst 



41 

be made whole." — " Dost thou believe I can do 
this thing ? — " Go thy way, thy faith hath made 
thee whole. 4 ' " As many as believed were made 
whole," are declarations of Christ to his pa- 
tients, which we frequently find in the Scripture 
history of his benevolent mission. Nor is it 
quite harmless to Christianity to sneer, as the 
Journal's reviewer does, at the admission of 
Mesmer and other magnetisers, that the pres- 
ence of scoffing sceptics is unfavorable to a 
certain class of their experiments ; for it is re- 
corded of Christ himself, in more than one in- 
stance, that "He did not many mighty works 
there, because of their unbelief." The Journal 
of Commerce should have reflected a little be- 
fore it disseminated sarcastic objections of this 
kind, against animal magnetism. 

Equally injudicious is the reviewer's mention 
of the external influences which Mesmer called 
to his aid : — 

" The house which Mesmer inhabited was 
delightfully situated; his rooms spacious and 
sumptuously furnished ; stained glass and color- 
ed blinds shed a dim, religious light ; mirrors 
gleamed at intervals along the walls; a myste- 
rious silence was preserved, delicate perfumes 
floated in the air, and occasionally the melodi- 
ous sounds of the harmonica or the voice came 
to lend their aid to his magnetic powers. His 
salons became the daily resort of all that was 
brilliant and spirituel in the Parisian fashiona- 
ble world." 
4* 



42 

So are our churches, every sabbath day; 
and the spiritual magnetisers who attract these 
congregations, by no means disdain the aid of 
melodious sounds, nor of stained glass and co- 
lored blinds ; and if mirrors are not added, it is 
because they think that their hearers should not 
exercise the vanity of looking at any body but 
they. Had Mesmer occupied a rostrum, where 
he could have inflamed the feelings of his au- 
dience by fabulous hopes and fabulous terrors ; 
where he could have resorted to every kind of 
elaborate argument and vivid illustration; where 
he could have poured forth a stream of honied 
eloquence or terrific expostulation, secure from 
contradiction and reply, and where he could 
have every thing his own way, he would have 
done no more for animal magnetism than our 
most approved and popular ministers are extoll- 
ed for doing in behalf of the religion of the heart. 
We presume it will not be denied by any cool 
minded person, that the rich description of sul- 
phuric scenery, and of the gamboling tortures 
of those who sport beneath cataracts of fire, in 
which many preachers indulge to captivate the 
tender imaginations of their hearers, are drawn 
more copiously from their own, than from the 
comparatively limited sources of sacred writ. 
And it may be doubted whether their perspec- 
tive views of heavenly bliss, of angelic pic-nics; 
tableaux, concerts and promenades, and of the 
geology and vegetation of the celestial land- 
scapes in which they are held, at not more 
poetic than scriptural ; more like the visions of 



43 

a magnetic somnambulist, than the scrupulous 
statements of men who wish their hearers to be 
influenced only by the word of God. Indeed, 
one of the best theological writers and eminent 
preachers of the age, has frankly recorded it as 
his opinion and advice, that ministers should 
indulge in tasteful poetic descriptions of the 
heavenly state, as a means of cherishing devo- 
tion, and weaning the affections from things of 
earth. Why then should Mesmer be decried, 
for aiding his scientific experiments upon the 
nervous system, with the external appliances of 
sumptuous apartments, and fascinating music? 
That these were not absolutely necessary to the 
success of them, is evident from the fact that he 
often benevolently performed them in the abodes 
of wretchedness and the hospitals of disease ; 
nor is the brilliant chandelier and the pealing 
organ necessary to the offices of religion in the 
chamber of the sick and the rural camp meeting; 
but to the luxurious and fashionable audiences 
which Mesmer drew to his saloons, and which 
crowd our " respectable churches," they are 
neither inappropriate nor objectionable. But 
a part of our reviewer's wrath is expended on 
the audiences themselves — 

" They approach with imaginations heated 
by curiosity and desire ; they believed because 
they were ignorant, and this belief was all that 
was required for the action of the magnetic 
charm. The women always the most ardent 
in enthusiasm, first experienced yawnings, 
stretchings, then slight nervous spasms, and 



44 

finally, a crisis of excitation, according as the 
assistant magnetisers multiplied and prolonged 
the soft passes or attouchcmens by which the 
magnetic influence was supposed to be commu- 
nicated. The emotions once begun, were soon 
transmitted to the rest, as we know one hysteri- 
cal female, if affected, will induce an attack in 
all others similarly predisposed in the same 
apartments." 

Now this description is equally applicable to 
the scenes that are quite commonly exhibited in 
our religious revivals, and no wonder, for the 
effects proceed directly from the same cause. 
That cause is the universal omnipresent, mag- 
netic spirit — improperly termed fluid — excited 
and accumulated in the nerves of the brain, 
through the medium of some or other of the 
external senses, and affecting both the nervous 
and the muscular system. We have ourselves 
seen " assistant magnetisers," in these excited 
religious assemblies, some laboring to aggravate 
and others to assuage the strong emotions of 
their distressed patients, and have beheld all 
the ordinary phenomena of this branch of Ani- 
mal Magnetism, as regularly and fully develo- 
ped as Mesmer himself could have desired. In 
these assemblies, as in his, the energetic volition 
and confident perseverance of the chief ope- 
rators, are the prevaling agencies in the effects 
displayed. Failh, all-conquering, ardently- 
sought faith, is even more strenuously insisted 
upon by the religio than by the animo-magne- 
tizers, and the former are even more candid 



45 

than the latter, in attributing all failures to its 
absence or insufficiency. 

Our reviewer dismisses Mesmer, by saying 
that he was annihilated by the Report of the 
Committee of the French Royal Academy of 
Medicine, who, as we have before stated, were 
engaged during a period of no less than five 
years, in observing his practice for the purpose 
of exploding it. Mesmer left France, it is true, 
shortly after the publication of that Report, but 
not inconsequence of it, for Animal Magnetism 
spread much more rapidly afterwards, than be- 
fore, and in the improved and much more in- 
structive form in which it was continued by M. 
de Puysegur, it became still more worthy of 
scientific consideration. — Besides, Mesmer was 
presented with a sum amounting to nearly ^500, 
000, raised by subscription among his pupils 
and friends, and this, with the fees, acquired in 
his practice, enabled him to return to his native 
land, to spend his days in retirement from the 
exercise of his profession. But what was there 
in the Report, so very very terrific as to drive 
him away? We have it not at hard, but if we 
are to believe our reviewer's own account of it, 
it was most lame and impotent indeed, — He 
says, " It shows that there is no proof of the 
existence of an universal or magnetic power, 
except from its effects on human bodies." — Well 
it was for its effects on human bodies, that 
Mesmer and his disciples chiefly contended, and 
it was these which they most generally exempli- 
fied, although its effects on cats and other ani- 



46 

mals arc too notorious and familiar to all, to re- 
quire corroboration. '• That those effects can 
be produced without passes or magnetic ma- 
nipulations." — 

Certainly, the Committee made no new dis- 
covery in this, it was well known to all the stu- 
dents of the science before : a friend of our's 
now in this city can throw epileptic persons 
into convulsions, by merely standing near them, 
and exciting the magnetic force in his nerves, 
by a strong exercise of his will ; and this is no 
more remarkable than that a man should throw 
the same force into his flexor and extensor 
muscles, when he wills to strike a blow. " That 
those manipulations alone, are insufficient to 
produce the effects, if employed without the 
patient's knowledge." Now we can scarcely 
conceive how manipulations can be employed 
without the patient's knowledge, unless he pre- 
viously sleep ; but if the Committee means by 
this that it is necessary in all cases that he 
should be informed of the effects that are to be 
produced him, we can contradict the assertion 
from our own knowledge and observation. In 
fact it is not requisite that he shall have heard 
a syllable about them before hand ; let him sit 
still, whilst the magnetiser holds his thumbs, or 
moves his fingers upon his head, and he will, if 
at all of a nervous habit, soon experience effects 
of which he had previously never formed an 
idea. The last and grand deduction of the 
Committee from these several propositions, is 
" that, therefore, imagination will, and Animal 



47 

Magnetism will not, account for the results 
produced." Now if these profound savans had 
only ventured one step farther, which they should 
have taken in the first instance, and thus saved 
themselves five years labor, they would have 
discovered that which causes the imagination, 
if imagination it be, to produce the results 
which they are unable to deny. They would 
have found that it was the magnetism which 
exists in the human body, as in all other animal 
and vegetable bodies, excited by the will, and 
communicated by the nerves, to those of the 
recipient party. What these effects usually 
are, and the modes of producing them, we shall 
state hereafter. 

MAGNETIC VISION. 

It is a saying not less true than antithetical, 
that it is better to remove prejudice than to 
build a pyramid. Prejudice is almost invariably 
an obstacle to the progress of truth, and there 
is no truth, however sublime and important, 
which it may not for a while successfully op- 
pose. In fraternal alliance with ignorance and 
superstition, it consigned Gallileo to the dun- 
geon and the rack, for proclaiming that the 
earth and planets moved round the sun, which 
is a doctrine now irrefutably demonstrated, and 
universally established. All history is instruct- 
ive testimony to its influence in retarding the 
advancement of every thing great and good, 
and to the present hour it is in active resistance 
to some of the grandest and most momentous 
discoveries in physical, moral, and intellectual 



48 

science. Among those which it has most ef- 
fectually opposed for this last half century, is 
that of Animal Magnetism, which is one of the 
most beautiful and important of them all. 
Without being in itself much more mysterious 
or wonderful than many of those with which 
we suppose ourselves familiar, and which we 
receive with the most flattering self compla- 
cency, Animal Magnetism has been derided by 
men of sound knowledge upon other subjects, 
for the simple reason that they were unac- 
quainted with its principles and laws. Both it, 
and all its present phenomena, aye, and many 
others not yet revived in these modern times, 
were well known to the most ancient nations, 
and are incorporated in the scriptures of our 
faith ; yet the obstinate prejudice of ignorance 
has rejected them, as Pope Urban and his 
Council did the philosophy of Copernicus and 
Gallileo, although it was many thousand years 
older than Pythagoras. 

We are gratified to perceive that the editor 
of the Commercial Advertiser, has been added 
to the number of influential men who have 
been induced to put the pretensions of Animal 
Magnetism to the test, and to honestly and 
candidly publish the result. That result has 
been what it would invariably be, after a full 
and fair investigation, a perfect conviction of 
the truth of this astonishing department of 
magnetical science. We extract the following 
from the Commercial Advertiser of last evening, 



49 

and regret that we can, at present, only add a 
few brief remarks : — 

Animal Magnetism. — We have had our time 
and times of laughing at Animal Magnetism. 
We shall laugh at it no more. There is some- 
thing awfully mysterious in the principle, be- 
yond the power of man to fathom or explain. 
Being in Providence on Saturday, Sunday and 
Monday, the 26th, 27th, and 28th of August, 
an opportunity was afforded us of seeing and 
taking part in a series of experiments, with a 
young blind lady, while under the magnetic 
influence, the results of which were not only 
marvellous in our eyes, but absolutely astound- 
ing. The exhibition was not public, and the 
parties were people of the first respectability, 
professional and otherwise. Having heard much 
upon the subject, and disbelieved all, the ex* 
periments were made before a private circle of 
ladies and gentlemen, at our own urgent so- 
licitation. 

We have written a narrative of the circum- 
stances, comprising some'fifty or sixty pages of 
foolscap ; and we venture to say, that nothing 
hitherto published upon that subject, is so won- 
derful by far, as the facts of which we were wit- 
ness — all of which we saw and part of which 
we were. We shall publish our narrative, on 
taking it to Providence for examination, pro- 
vided we can obtain permission of the parties — - 
who have hitherto avoided publications, or pub- 
lic exhibitions. 
5 



50 

One surprising incident we will mention. On 
Sunday while we were in Providence, a small 
package was received from Mr. Stephen Covill, 
of Troy, containing, as he wrote to his friend, 
a note which he wished Miss B to read, while 
under the magnetic influence, without breaking 
the seal, if she could. Mr. C. had been induced 
to try this experiment, in consequence of hav- 
ing heard of extraordinary performances of the 
kind — which, of course, he doubted. The 
package or letter, was evidently composed of 
several envelopes. The outer one was compo- 
sed of thick blue paper. On Sunday evening, 
Miss B. who, it must be borne in mind, when 
awake, is blind, was put into a magnetic slum- 
ber, and the letter given to her with instructions 
to read it. She said she would take it to bed 
with her, and read it before morning. On 
Monday morning, she gave the reading as fol- 
lows ; — 

" No other than the eye of Omnipotence 

can read this, in this envelopement. — 1837." 

We made a memorandum ol this reading, 
and examined the package, containing, as she 
said, the sentence. SShe said then, on Monday 
morning, that there were one or two words be- 
tween the word " envelopement" and the date, 
as we understood her, which she could not make 
out. We examined the seal with the closest 
scrutiny. The seal of Mr. Covill was unbrok- 
en, and to turn the letter or to read it without 
opening, with human eyes, was impossible. 



51 

After our return to the city, viz : on Wednes- 
day last, we addressed a letter to Mr. Covill, 
to ascertain whether the reading of the blind 
somnambulist was correct. The following is 
his reply : — 

" Troy, Sept 1, 1837. 
Dear Sir — Your's of yesterday 1 received by 
this morning's mail, and as to your inquiry rela- 
tive to the package submitted to Miss B. while 
under the magnetic influence, the package came 
to hand yesterday. The sentence had been 
written by a friend, and sealed by him at my 
request, and in such a manner as was supposed 
could not have been read by any human device, 
without breaking the seal. We think the 
seals have not been broken until returned. 
The sentence as read by Miss B. is: — " No 
other than the eye of Omnipotence can read 
this, in this cnvclopement — And as written in 
the original, on a card, and anot her card placed 
on the face of the writing, and enclosed in a 
thick blue paper envelope, was : — " JYo other 
than the eye of Omnipotence can read this, in 
this envelope." — Troy, N. York, August, 1837. 

Respectfully, yours, &,c. 

STEPHEN COVILL. 

P. S. — We have just received a note from 
Providence, with permission to publish our own 
narrative. But as it is very long, and equally 
complex and wonderful, we shall first take it to 
Providence, for the examination of those who 



52 



were present on the occasion. We also left a 
note for the blind lady to read, sealed with 
seven seals. We have received it this morning, 
the seals unbroken, with the answer written on 
the outside. This answer is correct, as far as 
it goes. We were in great haste at the time of 
preparing the note, and having the odd title of 
a queer old book in our pocket, printed in a 
smali italic letter, we wrote a part of the note 
with a pencil, and stuck it on two and a half 
lines ot the small itaHc printing, with a wafer. 
Tho note, written and printed, as we left it, 
was in these words : — 

" The following is the title, equally quaint 
and amusing, of a book which was published 
in England, in the time of Oliver Cromwell : — 
" Egg s °f Charity, layed by the chickens of 
the ( ovenmt, and boiled by the waters of 
Divine love. Take ye and eat" 

The following is the answer, sent by Miss 
B. through an intimate friend: — 

" The following is a title, equally amazing 
(or amusing) and quaint, of a book published in 
England in the time of Oliver Cromwell : — 

" Eggs of Charity" — 

Miss B. does not know whether the word is 
amazing or amusing. Something is written 
after the 4 eggs of charity,' which she cannot 
make out." 

Thus much for the present. We make no 
comments. What we know to be true, we fear 
not to declare. Facts sustained by the evi- 
dence cf our own senses, we trust we shall ev- 



53 

er have the boldness to publish. In regard to 
our narration, it is alike wonderful and inexpli- 
cable. As Paulding's black witch in Konings- 
marke, says — "I've seen ichat I've seen — / 
know tvhat 1 know? 

The phenomena here recorded are not, per- 
haps, so inexplicable as the editor of the Com- 
mercial Advertiser may imagine. The magne- 
tic spirit, which is commonly and improperly 
termed a fluid, exists in every portion of mat- 
ter, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal, and 
is probably as infinite as the universe. Innu- 
merable experiments have demonstrated that 
there is no modification of matter so dense that 
it cannot penetrate it with the speed of thought. 
Place a compass needle upon a marble chim- 
ney-piece, and magnet underneath, it will be 
found that the magnetic influence has passed 
through the stone in an instant, and affects the 
needle. If any other substance be brought to 
intervene, the effect will be the same. Now a 
magnetic somnambulist can see through almost 
all opaque substances, because this subtle prin- 
ciple or spirit, is the medium of its cerebral vi- 
sion, as light is the vision of the waking eye. 
The nerves of the brain, in both cases, are the 
powers of vision, although the media are different. 

When awake, we can see through any sub- 
stance, however hard, that admits the passage 
of the rays of light; and when in a state of 
magnetic somnolency, we can see through eve- 
ry substance that admits the passage of the 
5* 



54 

magnetic rays. There are certain exceptions 
to this rule already ascertained, which seem to 
have occurred in the above case, and further ex- 
periments may enable us to collect and classify 
many more. The magnetic medium, which we 
call and consider pure spirit, invariably ope- 
rates upon matter with two distinct forces, the 
negative and the positive, which mutually at- 
tract and repel, and are mutually attracted and 
repelled by every material substance with which 
they come in contact. Thus the end of apiece 
of iron in what is termed a negative state of 
magnetism, repels another in the same state, 
and attracts one in a positive state, for it is an 
established law of the science that the negative 
repels the negative and attracts the positive, 
and that the positive repels the positive and at- 
tracts the negative. 

We believe that both of these forces must ex- 
ist in a pretty equal degree in every substance 
through which they pass, to afford even a mag- 
netised somnambulist a perfectly distinct and 
transparent vision. If the substance be of 
such a nature as to favor the passage of one of 
these forces more than another, it would proba- 
bly be proportionably unfavorable to vision. 
We should suppose, from its well known electri- 
cal agency, that sealing wax would be a sub- 
stance, and we attribute the defective vision of 
Miss B., to that cause alone. V\ e should suppose 
that she could read a piece of writing soldered 
up in lead, with greater facility than through a 
complete coat of sealing wax, and that she 



55 

could read it through a case of iron with great- 
er ease than through either. We have much to 
say both of the facts and the philosophy of 
magnetism hereafter ; and are in possession of 
truths in every branch of that science, that will 
be of the utmost interest and value to the pub- 
lic, and which we have, for a long time past, 
been preparing for publication. 

The above able remarks, are from the pen of 
the editor of the N. Y. Era, who was present 
during tho author's process of magnetising an 
individual, and can give testimony of its singu- 
lar effects. 



AN 

ESSAY OF INSTRUCTION, 
TEACHING THE METHOD OF 

MAGNETIZING, 
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 

OF 

M. DE PUYSEGUR, 

BY 

J. KING, M. D. 

CHAPTER I. 

On the mechanism of Animal Magnetism. 

Question. What do you understand by 
Magnetism ? 

Ansicer. The touching a patient at the 
diseased, or most sensible parts of his body, in 
order to produce in such parts, a sensation of 
heat. 

Q. Do you believe that this heat, can pene- 
trate into the body of a patient ? 

A. Yes, and the production of it, ought to 
be our aim ; if this heat were only superficial, 
it would produce but little effect. 

Q. I low do you consider this heat ? 



58 

A. As the effect of the acceleration of a 
tonic movement, existing in the body of a 
patient. 

Q. Animal Magnetism, is, then, the art of 
accelerating the tonic movement in the bodies 
of our own species ? 

A. It is not an art, it is a faculty. (1) 

Q. Have all men this faculty ? 

A. They all possess more or less of it, ac- 
cording to the degree of energy of their strength 
and health. 

Q. All men, then, are able to Magnetize ? 

A. Without doubt, when they have the 
will. (2) 

Q. Why do you add, "when they have 
the will?" 

A. Because, men cannot resolve to do any 
act whatever, except, when they have the will 
to do it. 

Q. Is Magnetizing, then, an action ? 

A. It is is an act as physical, as striking, 
caressing, pounding any article in a mortar, 
working at a difficult trade, or composing works, 
requiring industry, fortitude, energy, and appli- 
cation ; as all acts, whatever may be their mo- 
tives, inspire in us, the will to produce them. 

Q. If all men have the faculty of Magne- 
tizing, how does it happen, that it has not been 
sooner discovered ? 

A. Every thing certifies, that formerly, men 
were fully in possession of their magnetic power. 
The fables, mysteries, and ceremonies of the an- 
cients, show traces of it; but probably, the forms, 



59 

the exterior proceedings for Magnetizing, sup- 
pressed very soon the spirit which had instituted 
them. The use of this faculty once gone, ig- 
norance and superstition have constantly perse- 
cuted those, who at different period, imve 
announced its recovery. 

Q Once persuaded that we have the mag- 
netic power, the question is then, that we must 
have, and exercise the will, in order to produce 
any effects ? 

A. Yes, in order to produce any effects, 
nothing else is required; but, to produce useful 
effects, and never injurious, it is necessary to 
act in a constant and regular manner. 

Q. \\ hat do you mean, by acting in a con- 
stant and regular manner ? 

A A comparison will explain it. It is by 
the action of the air on the wings of a mill, 
that its mechanism is moved ; as this action 
lessens, or ceases, the stone of the mill slackens 
its motion, or stops on the instant; as the wind 
changes, or becomes too violent, the mechanism 
of the mill is immediately disturbed. Our 
magnetic action, is the wind which gives, or 
rather, accelerates the tonic movement in a 
patient ; our will, is that, which gives to our 
action, its necessary and proper direction. (3) 

Q Can we produce injury, by magnetizing? 

A. Undoubtedly. If we touch a p itient, 
without attention or intention, we produce 
neit er benefit, nor injury ; but. if after having 
pro; u ed an effect upon him, we follow the first 
given impression, by another to the contrary, 



60 

we necessarily, occasion trouble and disorder. 
If, by indifference, or fear, we do not remedy 
this disorder, the most grievous results will fol- 
low. There is but one method of always mag- 
netizing for useful purposes ; it is, to will con- 
stantly, and strongly, the good, and the ad- 
vantage of a patient, and never to change, or 
vary the direction of the will. 

Q. But with a firm and constant will, to 
procure the most possible good to a patient, will 
we not sometimes, produce too much action 
in him ? 

A. Never. 

Q. What, never? Yet the best medicines 
often injure, when they are administered with- 
out circumspection and discernment. 

A. We ought never to compare the effect 
of medicines, to that of the magnetic action, as, 
the former acts immediately upon the organs, 
while the latter acts, always, immediately on 
the vital principle, to which it communicates 
the impression of a motion which is analogous 
to it, and which adds to the efforts that are un- 
ceasingly made to preserve the equilibrium, 
or health. 

Q A lthough all men have more or less of the 
magnetic power, do you not believe, however, 
that physicians may use it, in all cases, with 
more discernment than others? 

A That would be true, if animal magnet- 
ism was a science, or an art ; but, as it is only 
a faculty, all men, without distinction, can 
equally use it to produce good. 



60 

Q. But are there not cases, where it is ne- 
cessary to increase, or diminish the action of 
the vital principle in a patient. 

Jt . Yes, certainly, 

Q. In such cases, would it not be better to 
employ a physician, that he might judge of the 
progress, and whether it is necessary to increase 
or diminish the action of the vital principle in 
a patient ? 

A. The science of observing the state of 
the vital principle in patients, joined to the 
knowledge of proper medicines, in order to pro- 
cure the tone of movement necessary, is in re- 
ality, the art of ordinary physic ; for this rea- 
son, physicians cure many diseases; but the 
most learned, and experienced among them, 
agree, that nature knows more than they. — 
Now, animal magnetism, being the agent ot 
nature, it is very natural that it always acts 
more knowingly than they. 

Q. Then is it not necessary to know the 
kind, or cause of diseases, in order to cure them 
by animal magnetism. 

A. By no means ; the magnetic action di- 
rected and sustained by a firm will, or deter- 
mination to relieve the sufferings of a patient, 
will always give to his vital principle, that ac- 
tion which will be the most favorable for his 
disease, 

Q. You do not speak about the universal 
fluid ? 

A. It is useless. 
6 



61 

Q. Do you believe that there is an univer- 
sal fluid ? 

A. I have never said that there was, or was 
not, an universal fluid ; I know not, moreover, 
whether there are magnetic fluids, electric, gal- 
vanic, &c. (4.) One thing of which I am very 
certain, is, that in order to magnetise well, it is 
absolutely useless to know whether or not there 
does exist a single one of these fluids. 

Q. How do you admit the effect of the ac- 
tion of one body on another, without an inter- 
termedial, which communicates and transmits 
to it, its impulse ? 

A. Animal magnetism, is not the action of 
one body on another, but the action of thought 
on the vital principle of the body. (5.) 

Q. It is exactly that, which makes it less 
comprehensive still. 

A. I agree to that; besides, we need not 
seek an explanation; it is> because, it is; 
thought moves the matter. (6) It is this truth, 
that Virgil has so well expressed, by this fine 
verse of Eneid : 

" Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet." 

Q. If thought moves matter, it is then of a 
superior nature to matter ? 

A. I will not reply to this question, as it will 
merely give you my particular opinion ; every 
one ought to be free, to conclude, according to 
the measure and perception of his intelligence. 

To end this first part of instruction for be- 
ginners, it will be sufficient to repeat that which 



62 

concerns the mode of expressing the reason of 
the principle of all our wills and actions ; every 
man, who, with a wise mind, and compassionate 
heart, will believe in his magnetic power, and 
wishes to exercise it, will procure the sweetest 
enjoy ments that he will possibly be able to relish, 

CHAPTER II. 

M. de Pay segues opinion on the cause of 
the magnetic action of man. 

The observation that I have made, that a ball 
rolls only when a hand, or agent, determines to 
it this movement, has brought me to the con- 
clusion, that since the earth and all the planets 
roll in space, it must be, likewise, that some 
agent has communicated to them the impulse 
which determines their revolutions. 

But a rolling ball stops at the moment, when 
the action of the impelling force which it has 
received, ceases; then, as the planets do not 
stop, it is proof to my mind, that the impulse of 
the principal agent of their movement, does not 
discontinue. 

I see, at the most, a tonic or internal move- 
ment, as much in the whole mass of the earth, 
as in the different parts which compose it; 
winds, storms, tides, intemperatures, subterra- 
nean fires, meteors, <Slc, on one part ; crystalli- 
zation of minerals, vegetation of planets, gene- 
ration of beings, &c, on the other, are to me 
sufficient proof; finally, every thing announces 
to me, amotion impressed upon matter, and the 
continuance of the principle action of this motion. 



63 

But, instead of admitting an agent, the au- 
thor of the motion in matter, is it not matter 
itself, which is the cause and principle of all its 
effects? No, that is impossible; my intelli- 
gence, my senses tell me, that nothing can move 
of itself. From the time then, that matter is 
in motion, it is necessary to submit to the action 
of a principle, superior to it, and this principle, 
superior to matter is God, whom I cannot com- 
prehend, it is true, being only one of the pro- 
ducts of his almighty power, but of whose exis- 
tence, I am certain. 

Behold then, two realities for me : 1st, God; 
2nd, his action. God, principle and cause; 
the existence of the universe, his action. 

Let us see, at this placq, what passes when I 
magnetise ; the compassion which a patient in- 
spires in me, creates the desire, or the thought 
of being useful to him, and the moment that I 
determine to attempt to relieve him, his vital 
principle receives the impression of the action 
of my will. 

Here are two realities : 1st, The principle 
of my will; 2nd, its action; the principle of 
my will, otherwise, called my soul, cause of 
my action ; the effect felt by the patient, is the 
result of this action. 

The effect of the action of God, is motion in 
matter, unlimited. 

The effect ol the action of my soul, is motion 
in matter, limited. 

From the similitude in the effects, I conclude 
that there is a similarity in the causes. 



64 

Then, God and my soul are of the same 
nature. 

Now, God is superior to matter, in conse- 
quence of immateriality ; then, my soul is also 
immaterial. 

God, first cause, whose immaterial sense, is 
not enclosed in the limits of form, space, and 
time, having created, and formed all, may also 
destroy, or preserve all. 

My soul, second cause, of which the imma- 
terial nature is enclosed in the limits of form, 
space, and time, can neither create nor form 
any thing, and can only preserve, and restore. 

I stop at this last observation of a metaphysi- 
cal theory, which not only agrees with those I 
have heretofore given of the action and physi- 
cal effects of Animal Magnetism, but which is, 
moreover, truly the proof and complement of it, 

I leave it to minds more enlightened than 
mine, to deduct the certainty of the existence of 
God, and of our soul, the rules of our moral 
duties, political and religious ; my aim is only 
to prove the reality of Animal Magnetism, and 
I will not depart from the bounds which I have 
prescribed. 

CHAPTER III. 

Of the proceedings necessary to Magnetise. 

Question. What is the method to be pursu- 
ed, in order to magnetise ? 

Answer. I told you, in the first part of this 
instruction, that, in order to magnetise, it is by 
no means, necessary to know whether or not 
6* 



there exists a magnetic fluid ; I repeat again, 
it is perfectly useless ; nevertheless, the better 
to fix the attention in magnetising, we may 
admit the hypothesis. 

Q. Why do you say, admit the hypothesis ? 

A. Because, I am not certain of the exist- 
ence of a magnetic fluid ; it is therefore, for 
me, only a hypothesis, and not a reality. 

Q. The general opinion is, that there exists 
a magnetic fluid, 

A. You may believe it also, if you please, 
there is no inconvenience from it. This convic- 
tion will likewise serve much, to fix your at- 
tention the better, when you magnetise. 

Q. How so ? 

A. Consider yourself a loadstone, of which 
your arms, and hands especially, are the two 
poles; touch then, a patient, by placing one 
hand on the back, and the other in opposition 
on the stomach ; figure to yourself, then, that 
a magnetic fluid tends to circulate from one 
hand to the other, in crossing the body of the 
patient. 

Q. May we not vary this position ? 

A. Yes, we may place one hand on the 
head, without deranging the other hand and 
continue to pay the same attention aud havd 
the same will of doing good. The circulation 
of one hand to the other will continue ; the head 
and the lower portion of the stomach, being the 
parts of the body where the most nerves are 
placed, consequently, these are the two places, 
where it is necessary to carry the most action.(7) 






66 

Q. Is it necessary to rub these parts 
strongly i 

A. That is not necessary ; it is sufficient to 
touch them with attention, endeavoring at the 
same time, to observe a sensation of heat, in 
the hollow of the hand, which is always the 
proof, that an effect is produced. 

Q. What is the most desirable effect to ob- 
tain, in magnetising ?. 

A. All the effects are equally salutary, one 
of the most satisfactory, is somnambulism ; but 
it is not the most frequent, and patients can be 
equally cured, without entering into this state. 

Q. Ought we always to have the will of 
producing somnambulism ? 

A. No, for the desire of producing any 
effect whatever, is almost always a reason for 
not producing it, A magnetiser ought blindly 
to place his confidence in nature, that she may 
rule and direct the effects of his magnetic 
action. 

Q. What are the indications, by which we 
may discover that a patient is susceptible of en- 
tering into the state of somnambulism ? 

A. When in magnetising a patient, we per- 
ceive that he experiences a numbness, or light 
spasms, accompanied with nervous fits or starts; 
if then, we see him shut his eyes, it is necessary 
to touch him lightly with the thumbs on the eye- 
brows, to prevent winking. Sometimes, it is not 
even necessary to touch the eyes, as the action 
penetrates with as much activity, at a little 
distance. 



67 

Q. What, is there nothing else to do, to put 
a patient in the state of somnambulism ? 

A. No. In touching a patient in the man- 
ner I have indicated, with much attention, and 
with a Arm will to do good, you will often ob- 
tain this satisfactory result. 

Q. How may I be able to ascertain that a 
patient is in the magnetic state ? 

A. When you see him sensible, at a distance* 
to your emanations, whether in presenting the 
thumb before the pit of the stomach, or in car- 
rying it before the nose. 

Q. Are there no stronger indications 'i 

A. A patient in the magnetic crisis, ought 
only to reply to his magnetiser, and ought to 
suffer no other person to touch him ; the ap- 
proach of dogs, and all animated beings, ought 
to be to him insupportable ; and when by chance 
he has been touched, the magnetiser alone will 
be able to calm the pain which it has occasion- 
ed. (8.) 

Q. Has the magnetiser an absolute empire 
over his patient, in a magnetic crisis ? 

A. This empire is absolute in all which con- 
cerns the well being and health of the patient ; 
he may also be able to obtain from him, things 
indifferent in themselves, as to make him walk, 
drink, eat, write, &c, even all that we could 
obtain by complaisance from a person in the 
natural state; but if we wish to exact things 
which will displease him, then we counteract 
much, and he will not obey. (9.) 



68 

Q. If we are obstinate in wishing him to do 
those things which do not agree with him, what 
is the result ? 

A. After much suffering, the patient sud- 
denly leaves the magnetic state, and the evil 
which it will cause to him, will be very trou- 
blesome for his magnotiser to repair. 

Q. The magnetic state, otherwise called 
somnambulism, is a state, then, which demands 
the greatest discretion ? 

A. It is necessary to consider man in the 
magnetic state, as a being the most interesting, 
who exists by affinity to his magnetiser; it is 
the confidence he places in you, that has allow- 
ed you to be the master ; it is only for his good 
that you will be able to enjoy your power ; de- 
ceit in this state* to wish to abuse his confidence, 
is an act of dishonesty ; thus, by acting in a 
sense opposed to his welfare, we produce con- 
sequently, a contrary effect to that first given 
him. 

Q. Are there different degrees of som- 
nambulism ? 

A. Yes; sometimes, we procure from a 
patient, only a simple sigh; in another, the 
effect of magnetism is to cause him to shut his 
eyes, without the power of opening them him- 
self; then he understands every thing, but is not 
completely in the magnetic state. This state 
of half crisis is very common. (i0.) 

Q. Are these two effects as salutary, as 
complete somnambulism ? 



69 

A. They are not as satisfactory, for the 
magnetiser, as he can learn nothing from his 
patient; but they are also very salutary. 

Q. Are there any precautions to take, to- 
wards a patient who enters into the state of 
magnetic somnambulism ? 

A. As soon as you perceive that a patient 
shuts his eyes, and has manifested the sensibility 
to the magnetic emanations, it is not necessary 
at first to overwhelm him with questions, still 
less to wish to make him act, in any manner. 
The state in which he finds himself, is new for 
him, and it is necessary, so to speak, to let him 
be aware of it. The question ought to be* 
Hoic do you find yourself? then, do you feel 
that I have done ym any good ? Then express 
the pleasure you feel in procuring it for him, 
and gradually come to the details of his disease, 
and the object of your first questions ought not 
to extend beyond his health. 

Q. Why so. 

A. It is your aim, in magnetising, to cure; 
all the faculties of the patient, turn towards the 
object which has interested you in magnetising 
him. (11.) His health alone, then, occupies his 
faculties; and being possessed of more or less 
sensibility, he is more or less clearsighted on 
his present state, as on his future cure. (12.) 

Q. What conduct is necessary to observe 
towards a magnetic somnambulist ? 

A. To do every thing with safety, and not 
to contradict him ; also, to consult him on the 
hours when he wishes to be magnetized, the 



70 

time he wishes to remain in the crisis, what 
medicines he will need, and to follow his indi- 
cations, exactly, without missing even one 
minute. 

Q. Ma,y not a person in a magnetic state, 
prescribe medicines, contrary to his health ? 

Jl. That can never be. Although the pre- 
scription of a somnambulist, may be different 
from the ideas that we may have received in 
medicine, yet, his sensations are surer than all 
the given results of observation ; Nature ex- 
presses herself, if we may thus speak, by his 
mouth ; it is a clear instinct, which dictates to 
him, his demands, and not to obey them to the 
letter, will be to miss the end proposed, namely, 
to cure him. 

Q. How do we get a person out of the mag- 
netic state ? 

A. When you magnetised him, your aim 
was to put him to sleep, and you have succeeded, 
solely, by the act of your will; it is also, by 
another act of the will, that you awaken him.(13) 

Q. What, is it only necessary, that he opens 
his eyes to perform his awakening ? 

A. It is the principal operation; but, the 
better to fix your ideas upon the object which 
occupies your mind, you may lightly touch the 
eyes, willing at the same time, that he opens 
them and awakes, and this effect never fails 
to follow. 

Q. Are there any other signs to observe in 
the conduct of magnetism ? 



71 

A. It may sometimes happen that a patient 
has tremblings, or light convulsive motions, the 
first time that he is magnetised ; in this case, it 
is necessary for the magnetiser to cease his first 
action, and occupy himself in calming the suf- 
ferings of the patient. (14.) 

Q. What means must be employed for that? 

A. At first, will that his evils are quieted, 
and that he suffers no more; (15) then, direct 
all your attention, your touches to the suffering 
parts; spread, as it were, the fluid throughout 
the whole extent of his body, and do not aban- 
don him, until he is in a calm and tranquil state, 

Q- Can we always control these convul- 
sions or sufferings of a patient ? 

A. Yes, when they are caused by our mag- 
netism, for you may recollect we have said, 
that Animal Magnetism taking always the 
character of the will of the magnetiser, ought 
to ca!m the accidental evils, proceeding from 
the first impression that we have given. 

Q. And the habitual sufferings of a patient, 
are they also capable of being removed by the 
influence of magnetism ? 

A. No, because, sometimes the disease has 
made so great progress, and has taken such 
deep root, that the influence of magnetism, can- 
not destroy the symptoms, but by dint of time 
and care. 

Q. If, after having made all efforts to arrest 
the convulsions which magnetism produces, we 
do not put an end to them, what must we do ? 



72 

Jl. We must not become alarmed, but be- 
lieve that the nature of the disease demands 
such a crisis, in order that the patient may be 
entirely cured ; but this tranquillity ought to 
be entire, only when we feel innocent with re- 
gard to the conduct we have pursued towards 
the patient. (16.) In general, the case where 
a patient preserves his grievous impressions, not- 
withstanding his magnetiser, is very rare ; it 
has only happened but once to myself; and 
when several times in succession a magnetiser 
is not able to arrest the convulsions which have 
shown themselves, we would always be in doubt 
with regard to his good disposition. 

Q Have you any thing further to teach 
me concerning the practice of Animal Magne- 
tism ? 

A. No ; it is sufficient for you to remember, 
the grand base on which is founded the doc- 
trine of animal magnetism, as I have conceiv- 
ed it, and as I have taught you. Remember, 
that man always acts for his best interest ; and 
rarely for good, if he does not find a great inte- 
rest in it ; and this is only a spiritual principle, 
emanating immediately from the creator of the 
universe, that he may feel the necessity of satis- 
fying the continual cravings of his soul, which 
delights only in good, order, and truth, 

(End of Puysegur's Essay.) 



73 

EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. 

Question. What qualifications are necessa- 
ry to magnetise well ? 

Answer. First, belief is necessary, because it 
is foolish to try to do what we deem an impos- 
sibility. By granting a little confidence to your 
predecessors, keeping away doubt, as much as 
possible, wishing for success, and acting with 
attention and simplicity of heart, belief may be 
obtained. (17.) 

Second. — Will, or a determination to pro- 
duce the desired effect. It must be strong and 
permanent, and is the most difficult to acquire, 
and the most fatiguing to exercise. (18.) 

Third — Benevolence, or a firm determination 
to do good. If you magnetise with an evil in- 
tention, your fluid producing that impression on 
your patient, would be immediately repulsed, 
and all confidence in you lost. [19.] 

Fourth. Good health, if not an indispensa- 
ble, is a most favorable qualification. 

Q. What is the best time of life to become 
a good magrietiser ? 

A. At that period when our frame has ac- 
quired its full growth, and the mind the full ex- 
tent of its powers. 

Q. Can females magnetise ? 

A. Yes, they prove to be excellent magneti- 
sers, as they generally possess more love, bene- 
volence, &,c, than males. 

Q. What terms are generally made use of 
in magnetising ? 



74 

A. When magnetising for the first time, it 
is to place yourself in relation. Each motion 
of the hand, is a pass. To magnetise from 
head to foot, is, by streams or currents. To 
magnetise at a distance, is when your hands 
cease to touch the person. 

Q. Explain the operation of magnetising ? 

A. Suppose that you wish to magnetise a 
patient ; sit opposite to him, take hold of his 
thumbs, and look steadily at him, with a perma- 
nent attention and intention, or will to produce 
the desired effect. After four or five minutes, 
when his thumbs have acquired the same tem- 
perature with yours, place your hands on his 
shoulders, let them remain there two or three 
minutes, then draw them very slowly along the 
arms, and take hold again of the thumbs ; do 
this three or four times in succession; then, 
place your hands on his stomach, in such a 
manner, that your thumbs may be in the centre, 
and your fingers on the sides ; when you feel a 
communication of heat, slowly draw your hand 
down to his feet ; then place them over his head, 
and slowly draw th^m again down to the feet, 
and continue in the same manner, taking care 
in raising your hands to his head, to turn them 
outwards, and extend them both sides. The 
precaution never to magnetise upwards, and to 
separate your hands when you raise them, is re- 
commended as essential. (20.) Touch slightly 
and slowly, keeping your hands a few inches 
from the face, and scarcely even touching the 
clothes ; use no muscular effort ; let your mo- 



75 

tions be easy and supple ; your hand must not 
be stiff; let your fingers be a little bent, and 
occasionally united, for it is from the end of the 
fingers that the fluid flows or radiates ; do not 
be impatient of producing effects; give yourself 
up entirely to feelings of sympathy, and to the 
wish to relieve your patient. If he feels pain in 
particular parts, hold your hand some time on 
that part ; continue your operation, for about 
half an hour* As it is necessary that your at- 
tention should be permanent, a longer time 
would be fatiguing. In finishing the operation, 
make several long passes, and one across the 
eyes, to disseminate equally the fluid. 

The relation once well established, contact 
is not necessary ; the action at a distance is 
often more beneficial and salutary, than that 
produced by immediate contact. (21.) 

Q. What is the most favorable situation, in 
which to place a patient to be magnetised ? 

A. The situation indicated is the most fa- 
vorable, so much so, that the look of the magne- 
tiser produces a great effect ; but this situation 
is not always possible ; a patient may be con- 
fined to his bed : — then you place your hands 
on his head, his shoulder, his stomach, down to 
his feet. There are many other means ; they 
are taught by experience ; sometimes guessed 
by the magnetiser, or indicated by the patient 
himself. 

Jn swellings of glands, you may put a clean 
handkerchief on them, place your mouth upon 
it, and send your breath through ; it produces 



76 

a great heat, at first mechanical, then magnetic, 
which is very active. In sick headaches, or 
when the blood determines to the head, passes 
made over the legs are good to relieve it. If 
the pain is the result of a blow, keep your hand 
on the part affected for some time before draw- 
ing down. It may happen a pain felt in the 
shoulder is drawn to the elbow, then to the 
hands, and finally thrown out at the fingers, 
with some very observable perspiration. 

Q. Can we always upon the first trial, 
place a patient in a magnetic sleep ? 

A. No, sometimes we have to continue to 
magnetise for several days, even to fourteen and 
twenty days, before sleep will be produced. 

Q. When it is necessary to magnetise for 
several days, what rule must we observe ? 

A. We must magnetise^ every day at pre- 
cisely the same hour. Periodical regularity 
seems to increase the effects. 

Q. Is it dangerous to interrupt the treat- 
ment, when magnetism has produced an effect ? 
A. Yes, it would be better never to begin it, 
than to discontinue. It must be continued to 
the end. 

Q. Can we always depend upon the an- 
swers given by a somnambulist ? 

A. Only as regards their health, and that 
of others, and treatment, to be pursued, beyond 
this, we cannot depend upon them. Although 
they have very often given correct answers yet 
it does not follow as a general rule, that they 
answer any question, correctly. Some magne- 
7* 



77 

tisers are often deceived by not being aware of 
this circumstance, 

Q. How do you place a person in relation 
with your patient? 

A. Let another person speak, or will, with- 
out speaking to the patient, and if he is in a 
complete magnetic state, he will not notice it ; 
but if the magnetiser places him in relation 
with the patient, by merely, touching him with 
the end of his finger, the magnetised person 
obeys readily ; and as soon as the magnetiser 
withdraws his hand or finger, the somnambu- 
list immediately ceases doing whatever may 
have been required. 

One thing infinitely satisfactory in the em- 
ployment of Animal Magnetism, is to be able, 
with the aid of a somnambulist, to have an IN- 
DICATOR, not only of the seat of his disease, 
but also of the diseases of the various individu- 
als who may be presented to him. (22.) — (Put/.) 

" Magnetised water is one of the great means 
of magnetic medicine. A patient in crisis is 
the only person who can perceive the difference 
from ordinary water. 1 have no more idea of 
this fact, than of others I have cited, as it de- 
pends upon a sensation that I have never felt ; 
but the reiterated experience that I have had 
among many patients, leave no doubt of its re- 
ality. It is not even necessary, that the water 
to be magnetised, be in a glass vessel." — (23.) 

" All my patients in crisis agree in advising 
this water in abundance to dropsical persons, 



73 

confident that it is more salutary to them, than 
my exterior touching." (Puysegur.) 

" In order to magnetise a decanter or a tum- 
bler full of water, hold it on the palm of the 
left hand, and place the right hand above with 
the fingers closed; open and shut them by 
turns ; move them over the surface, at a short 
distance, to charge the water with the fluid, in 
the same manner as philosophers would charge 
with electricity, a Leyden bottle. This water 
sometimes produces surprising effects. Some- 
times purgative, sometimes astringent ; it will 
now cool the stomach ; it will then warm 
it." (24.) — (Du Commun.) 

" I believe that the magnetic action ought to 
be salutary to all men, in different degrees, and 
that it can never be hurtful. Whoever is in a 
state of perfect health, ought not to be suscep- 
tible to the magnetic influence. There are 
diseases, which, although very serious and dan- 
gerous, may repel, or refuse to receive the mag- 
netic action for a certain time ; this often dis- 
courages the magnetiser and patient. I also 
believe that such diseases which resist the ac- 
tion of one magnetiser, will yield more readily 
to the empire ot another. I have had patients 
on whom I have never been able to produce the 
least effect, notwithstanding the great desire 
which they had of experiencing it, I attribute 
the cause to the little analogy existing between 
them and myself. Experience teaches me, that 
one man will cure certain diseases better than 
others ; it may be owing to temperament, cha- 
racter, climate, country, &c." — {Puysegur.) 



79 

44 Faith is necessary to the person magnetis- 
ing, it is not to the person magnetised ; true it 
is, that an absolute incredulity would trouble, 
and an invincible repugnance counteract the ef- 
fects ; but a sick person naturally wishes to be 
relieved, if he has not an implicit faith in the 
efficacy of the agent, he wishes it to be true ; 
this disposition is sufficient to receive the bene- 
ficial inflence." — (Du Commun.) 

44 The hand of the magnetiser, at two inches 
distance, gives generally a sensation of heat, 
scarcely ever of cold. Frequently it excites a 
drowsiness, or heaviness of the head, which is 
not unpleasant. On the stomach it often pro- 
duces the effect of a weight ; pulsation becomes 
more lively and regular ; perspiration is fre- 
quently very sensible, particularly in the hands 
and feet ; the patient gets into a state of ease, 
and ceases to perceive the duration ot time ; he 
may fall into a slight slumber, which the least 
noise may destroy. Sometimes the eyelids are 
contracted, he cannot raise them, although per- 
fectly awake." — (Du Commun. J 

* The only sensation that I experience m 
magnetising, is relative to the effect that I pro- 
duce on my patient ; if he is susceptible to the 
magnetic emanations, I feel a heat, more or less 
light in my hands, and an attraction more or 
less great, to continue to magnetise. 9 ' [8.] 

( Puysegur.) 

* 4 The experience that I have acquired con- 
firms me in "the idea, that the head, and the 
plexus solaire, (plexus of nerves in the stomach) 



80 

are the parts of the human body, which receive 
most effectually, the magnetic emanations. — 
The eyes above all, appear to me more suscep- 
tible than any other organ. It is by a light 
friction on the eyes' that I finish the magnetic 
charge, from whence results somnambulism; 
and it is also by a very light friction on the same 
organs, that I perform the discharge, from 
whence follows, awakening, and the natural 
state. 

The immediate touch without pressure, is 
that which I prefer ; it often seems to me, that 
the magnetic action is augmented, by a light 
friction." — ( Puysegur. ) 

" When magnetism produces somnambulism 
the being who enters in this state acquires pro- 
digious faculties of perception ; his exterior sen- 
ses, particularly sight and hearing, are suspen- 
ded, and the sensations are transferred inward- 
ly ; it seems that a new sense, which supplies 
all the others in him, is developed. The som- 
nambulist has his eyes shut, and sees not with 
his eyes ; he hears not with his ears, and he sees 
and hears better than in his natural state. He 
sees and hears but those with whom he is put 
in relation. 1 I e sees but the object on which 
he brings his attention. He is obedient to the 
will of his magnetiser, in all that is not in oppo- 
sition to his ideas of justice and truth. He of- 
ten feels the influence of the operator's will, 
without the use of words. He perceives the 
magnetic fluid. 



81 



He sees, or rather he feels the interior of his 
body and that of others ; but he observes com- 
monly, only the parts which are not in a natu- 
ral state, and the harmony of which is dis- 
turbed. He finds in his memory the recollec- 
tion of things he had forgotten when awake. 
Time and space are no obstacles to him. He 
knows the past, foresees the future, and sees ob- 
jects out of the reach of the sense of sight. — 
However, these faculties are limited in their 
extent. 

The means a magnetiser has to excite in his 
somnambulist lively sensations, to calm his suf- 
ferings, to change the order of his ideas, to di- 
rect his attention upon such, or such an object, 
to put him in relation with other persons, and 
to destroy that relation, finally, the power of the 
magnetiser upon the magnetised, appears ma- 
gical to those who see it for the first time." 
( Du Commun.) 

The following are the best series of questions 
to be asked of a somnambulist. Do you sleep ? 
Ho long do you wish to sleep ? When, and at 
what hour shall I put you again in this state? 
How long will the crisis last ? Do you see 
your disease ? Do you see the cause of it 1 
Do you see the remedy ? Have I done you any 
good? Will animal, magnetism cure you? — 
When will you be cured ? W ill you suffer much 
pain or convulsions in your next crisis ? What 
course must be pursued to preserve your health, 
after your cure is effected ? 



NOTES. 



1. Galvanism apart from animate beings, is a science ; with them, it is a 
faculty or power as natural as eating, sleeping, awaking, &c. 

2. This employment of the will, puts the galvanic battery in motion and 
action, and produces those strange effects. 

3. Thus explaining why a person should believe and have faith, when 
magnetising ; as by the contrary, lie interrupts, and destroys ;he force, and 
regularity of action of his galvanic battery. 

4. Magnetism, galvanism, and electricity are caused by repulsion 
and attraction; either of them produce heat and light, and they are the same 
fluids modified by oiher mutter. 

5 Or rather, the ac ion of my healthy and regular battery, on the de- 
ranged, and unhealthy battery of the patient 

6. The theory of galvanism, enables us to answer such questions. It is 
the effect of a strong and regular galvanic battery, constantly in action, 
upon a weak and i< regular one. 

7. Why is it so 1 Because these nerves convey the fluid more rapidly to 
the brain, or bafery. 

8. This obedience is in accordance with the laws of galvanism, and 
motion ; positive repels positive, and attracts negative, and vice versa : the 
north pole of a magnet repels the north pole of another, and attracts the 
south, &c In magnetism, the magnetiser possesses more »»f the positive 
fluid, or negative, than his patient, consequently, there is a continual attrac- 
tion between them. And when another person, not placed in relation, ap- 
proaches it has a tendency to destroy that equilibrium of positive and nega- 
tive fluids, necessary to produce this attraction. ** ♦ 

9. When we magnetise a person it is for his good ; hence, as soon a3 
we change this good intention for a contrary one, we produce a contrary 
effect, and the chain which held him, becomes broken. The galvanic fluid 
formed with a good intent, is repulsive to that formed with a bad one, hence 
it may be taken from the patient so suddenly, as to injure him seriously. 

10. This depends on the health strength, and firmness of the magnetiser, 
or on the degree of debility to which his patient is reduced. 

11. In obedience to the laws of galvanism. 

12. This depends more particularly on his natural phrenological de- 
velopments. 

13. Having charged him with the fluid in a positive state to produce 
sleep, we now reverse it, and by a negative charge, his awakening is effect- 
ed. Because, to constitute attraction between each, there should be positive 
and negative forces yet the positive being the force, or fluid in action, the 
conuary effect is produced. 

14. These convulsions, are shocks from the battery, it being employed 
so strongly upon the patient, as to produce, as it passes along his conductors 
or nerves, li<?ht shocks. 

15 By this, the force of the action is modified, and consequently the 
shocks cease* 



16, That is, we have been steadily, firmly, and perseveringlv in action, 
not wavering, doubting, or thinking oi anv oilier than the patient's good 

17. This has been explained There must be bit one determined will, 
not broken in upon^-by disbeliefs, doubts. &c, to produce a positive effect 
from the galvanic battery Lisbeiief, disorders, destroys the harmony of 
action in the battery, by dividing the will and no effect is produced, 

18 This trill, calls the battery into action. 

19. As the attraction between your patient and self, is produced by two 
forces, yourself, the positive, the patient, negative; then he b^ing naturally 
in the negative, ihe employment of a negative force, pruduces repulsion. 

20. Some magnetise merely by holding the thumbs and looking stead- 
fastly in the patients eyes, and some by forming circles on ihe stomach. 

21. This may be with those who cannot receive the immediate shocks, 
without experiencing slight convulsions. 

22. As before said, lhis is owing to the state of perfection in which the 
phrenological organs of the patient are formed: the nearer to perfection the 
more truly can he speak. A man possessing in the natural state perfect 
organs, will have the power of seeing and knowing the past, present and 
future. 

23. Thus showing ihe possibility of impregnating other substances, with 
the galvanic fluid from our own bodies. 

24 Actiug upon galvanic principles it produces the necessary effect on 
those parts where the fluid is in either too great, too small, or disordered 
quantities. 



Dr. J. King, respectfully informs the public, that he Magnetises for the 
cure of the following diseases, at No 13 Chrystie street: Asthma, Chronic 
affections of the Lungs, Livers and Kidneys, Convulsions, Cramps, Deaf- 
ness, Diseased Eyes, Dropsy, Epi epsy. Fever and Ague, Female complaints, 
General Debility, Headache. Hypocondria, Hysterics, Jaundice, Pal-y, 
Palpitation of Heart, Rheumatism, St. Vitus Dance, and all other chronic 
diseases, accompanied with nervous debility. 



THE END. 



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4P *y Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

JP ♦«< PreservationTechnologies 

* - 6 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



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